Posted by Ehsani on Wednesday, March 28th, 2012

James Baker, Former Secretary of State appeared on the Charlie Rose Show last night. His comments on Syria start on the 16-minute mark. Mr. Baker is always worth listening to. Set below are some quotes from the interview:

“I am not a big fan of what we did in Libya even though I am glad to see Gaddafi gone. We don’t know who these people are, the Free Syrian Army and all those people. Syria is a whole lot of a different case than Libya. We need to proceed very cautiously. We are broke. We don’t need another major engagement that we cannot fund. Assad has lost legitimacy. You can’t murder your own people and expect to survive for very long and when he goes, and my view ultimately he will go. That is not all that bad for us from the standpoint of the situation with Iran. “

“Maybe it’s time for Syrian revolutionaries to take “yes” for an answer from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and back a U.N.-sponsored “managed transition” of power there, rather than rolling on toward a civil war that will bring more death and destruction for the region.

We should learn from recent Middle East history and seek a non-military solution in Syria — even with the inevitable fuzziness and need for compromise with unpleasant people.

The alternative to a diplomatic soft landing is a war that shatters the ethnic mosaic in Syria. It’s easy to imagine Sunni militias gaining control of central cities such as Homs, Hama and Idlib, while Alawites retreat to parts of Damascus and Latakia province in the north. Assad might still claim to be president in this scenario, but he would be little more than a warlord (albeit one with access to chemical weapons). It’s a grim scenario in which Western air power would have limited effect.”

To create jobs for their young populations, Arab economies need to integrate, according to an Oxford University study published in December by Adeel Malik and Bassem Awadallah, a former Jordanian finance minister. It highlights restrictions on the movement of investment, goods and people across borders.

The result, in an Arab world with a population of 350 million, is “insignificant” levels of internal trade and regional markets that are “cut off from each other and from the rest of the world,” they wrote. It can be cheaper for a Jordanian company to import from the U.K. than from nearby Lebanon, while “visa requirements for traveling within the region can sometimes be as cumbersome as the journey itself.

Whoever takes office will have to win back people like Mohammed, Ahmed and the others camped outside the Libyan Embassy trying to flee Egypt. Poverty and unemployment have clouded their view of the revolution they supported.

“There is no change,” said Mohammed. “We want to feel that we have rights in our own country. Who feels that way?” he asked, looking at the men gathered around him. Most replied: “No one!”

Bashar al-Assad is acting victorious, marching under the gaze of state television crews into the ruins of the Baba Amr district of Homs, the city bombarded by his forces for nearly a month. In TV footage this week, the Syrian leader is seen surrounded by loyalists described as residents, though most of the inhabitants have fled. He blames his enemies for the devastation and promises to rebuild Baba Amr.

Mr Assad’s tour was another grotesque show of force aimed at humiliating the rebellious people of the district, who faced collective punishment for allowing Free Syrian Army fighters to protect them. It was also a manifestation of a renewed self-confidence following the regime’s seizure of a series of strongholds that had fallen under rebel control and brought the armed opposition dangerously close to the gates of Damascus.

The problem for Mr Assad, however, is that the Annan plan gives no relief from the most dangerous threat he faces. That threat has never been from the armed rebels but from the peaceful demonstrators who continue to stage protests more than a year after the eruption of the revolt. “As soon as a ceasefire takes hold, Bashar falls because the people will be on the streets in millions, even in Damascus,” says Samir Seifan, a Syrian economist who has joined the opposition. “There will be no need for the FSA whose members know that demonstrations are what will bring down the regime.” Mr Assad, insists Mr Seifan, can score military gains but he cannot win the war against the popular uprising.

Top Arab League officials are meeting in Baghdad to try and reach consensus on the crisis in Syria. However, the meeting has been marred by a diplomatic row between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, who disagree on the issue.

­On Wednesday, attendees produced a draft resolution supporting the six-point plan proposed by UN-Arab League Syrian envoy Kofi Annan, and called for a ceasefire in the country. While it voiced support for the Syrian people’s “legitimate aspirations to freedom and democracy,” it also rejected foreign intervention.

But cobbling up the resolution did prove to be somewhat difficult as the participants disagreed on a course of action in Syria. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council have been pushing for military intervention and arming the opposition. Host country Iraq, on the other hand, has been opposed to intervention and has been more in favor of a peaceful resolution.

In the meantime, a behind-the-scenes diplomatic row between Iraq and Saudi Arabia has complicated matters even further. An Arab League source reported that Saudi Arabia and Qatar wanted Iraq to invite representatives of the Syrian opposition. When Iraq did not do so, Saudi Arabia responded by sending its Arab League ambassador instead of its foreign minister to the summit – an in-your-face snub in diplomatic terms, as the ambassador ranks significantly lower than the foreign minister. Qatar and Egypt also refrained from sending top ranking diplomatic officials to the summit.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari admitted that the summit will offer “nothing new,” but will complement international efforts to help bring about a solution to the crisis. While he did say that the summit will not call on President Bashar al-Assad to step down, he also remarked that Iraq “could no longer remain neutral.” He went on to say that the conflict was heading towards “internationalization,” and that the Arab League has already done all it could to resolve the conflict.

Plummeting ratings for mainstream media news networks mean one thing – American viewers have had enough and are switching off. RT takes a look at why TV viewers seem to be turning elsewhere for real information.

America’s mainstream media rarely questions the need for military intervention.

“At the height of the war with Iraq, there was a study that showed that out of 317 people interviewed on American television, only 3 opposed the war”, said media critic and blogger Danny Schechter.

To Iran, to Libya, to Syria – the Western mainstream media seems to have lost the desire to critically assess information. Copy-pasting official press releases instead, and self-imposing censorship.

“If you are extremely driven by a particular point of view, you tend to select facts that support your point of view. That makes you an advocate, it doesn’t make you a journalist”, said Schechter.

Take Syria – the current foreign policy story making headlines.

Author and journalist Sharmine Narwani – contributor to the Huffington Post – says her Syria articles questioning the official story – were rejected.

To Narwani, Western media coverage is a theatre of the absurd.

“These people are flown in first class, they have staff, they have support staff for those staff members, they move in large groups. They have vans, and drives and translators. You’re not going in quietly. You’re coming in lights, camera, action”, she explained.

Viewers are given little, if any, background to the issues causing the crisis. What’s also missing is balance.

“They’ll go straight to opposition leaders in X place. They’ll go straight for the things that validate their perspective, or the perspective of their Governments, frankly. Instead of seeking out alternative information, information that may be challenges the dominant narrative”, said Narwani.

In Syria that narrative is clear – it’s a government crackdown on civilian protesters.In reality, armed groups, and reportedly even Al Qaeda, are part of the uprising.This is left out of mainstream reports – whether knowingly, or due to ignorance.

“Nobody that I know who is a so-called serious commentator on Syria is able to define exactly who the Syrian opposition is, what their goals are, or really knows much about the history of Syria or its geography, or its demographics – they really don’t know much at all”, said editorial columnist and author Ted Rall.

This has created an information black-out – with a major chunk of the story unavailable to viewers, what is shown being of questionable value.

“A shaky cell phone footage taken of something that doesn’t even address the basic journalism questions of who, what, when, how? But they’re happy to put their on the screens”, said Sharmine Narwani.

“My amendment is one sentence long; it states that nothing in this act is to be construed as a declaration of war or as an authorization of the use of military force in Iran or Syria,” Paul told his colleagues.

“Before sending our young men and women into combat we should have a mature and thoughtful debate over the ramifications of war, over the advisability of war and over the objectives of the war,” Paul added.

“Many in this body cannot get boots on the ground fast enough in a variety of places, from Syria to Libya, to Iran,” criticized Senator Paul.

“James Madison wrote that the constitution supposes what history demonstrates, that the Executive is a Branch most interested in war and most prone to it,” he added.

“Our founding fathers were quite concerned about giving the power to declare war to the Executive. They were quite concerned that the Executive could become like a King,” Paul added on Tuesday.

Although Reid wasn’t to please with Paul’s objection, Paul felt that “without a vote and without careful consideration of the ramifications of third or even a fourth war in this past decade” there is no legitimate need to send young soldiers into war.

“I urge that we not begin a new war without a full debate.”

In response to Paul’s amendment Reid stated he was “terribly disappointed.”

“There’s nothing in the resolution that talks about war. In fact, it’s quite to the contrary. … I read the Constitution a few times. My friend says he wants to restate the Constitution. That’s a strange version he just stated,” Reid added.

The Republican Senator was “amazed at the majority party objections to an amendment that simply restates the US Constitution.”

“I think that we all broadly agree with the proposal, the terminology that was made, that if there are UN Security Council sanctions then we are all bound by that, but if there are sanctions that are imposed by other countries unilaterally, they shouldn’t have to apply to us,” South Africa’s Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies is cited by Reuters as saying.

The BRICS group of five is meeting in New Delhi to hold its fourth two-day summit. Though the creation of an alternative to the IMF and the World Bank are said to be the key issues on the agenda, leaders will touch upon Iran and Syria as well.

Sheila
There are different types of media shabbiha,among those who live outside Syria,
1- benefit financially
2- they have or their relative have blood in supperssion this revolution.
3- Drug addiction.and those who drinks alcohol heavily.You can tell who they are.

However there are descent people who are misguided and frustrated.they are bound to change their mind,and we will know later why they support the regime.

Instead of quoting ill-informed rubbish from the likes of James Baker and David Ignatius, I wonder when Joshua Landis is going to present a commentary on Syria’s parliamentary contest. The election is on 7 May 2012.

Local Council or Municipal elections were held on 12 Dec 2011. Here’s the entirety of Joshua’s comments on those, which he gave after the elections were over: “Municipal elections, by all accounts, were a bust. It is hard to see how they can change much so long as article 8 of the constitution – the article guaranteeing the supremacy of the Baath in society and politics – remains in force. Syrian opposition forces asked their followers to boycott them. The notion of reform is dead. The opposition is determined to bring down the regime, not reform it.” The official turnout was 41% in the local council elections on 12 Dec 2011. That’s a pretty healthy turnout in comparative international terms for local council elections. On 12 Dec 2011 there were 42,889 candidates competing for 17,629 seats (including a sizeable number of uncontested seats where no one had launched a contest against a returning incumbent), spread across 1,355 local councils and other local administrative entities. And afterwards all the local councils nationwide were under the control of nice and sensible pro-regime people.

Article 8 of the old Constitution didn’t affect the Local Councils. That has been true since the year 2005 Local Administration Law. Under the law for the 12 Dec 2011 elections the members of the Municipal Councils are elected in fully competitive fully free elections (except that sectarian and tribal parties are banned). After the elections, the executive officers of the Municipal Councils were elected by the elected council members without any restrictions at all. Under the law, the opposition forces had the legal power to win the majority of the seats in Homs City Council and elect an oppositionist councillor as the chairman of the council. Under the political reality they would’ve gotten trounced in the elections which is the true reason why they sulked.

I sincerely expect Joshua’s comments on the upcoming parliamentary elections to be equally as brief and rubbishy as his comments on the Local Council elections were. Joshua’s real good at rehashing what mainstream media in USA is saying. But the view in the USA is inconsequential and impotent in Syria, thanks be to God.

DAMASCUS, March 28 (Xinhua) — One civilian and two army officers were killed Wednesday in Syria by “armed terrorist groups, ” the state-run SANA news agency reported.

Armed groups assassinated a brigadier in northern Aleppo province Wednesday as another group shot dead a colonel at Joubar countryside of the capital Damascus, according to SANA.

Wednesday’s attack came as part of other assassinations targeting senior army and security personnel. Rebel forces are believed to be behind the assassinations. The Syrian crisis has grown more militarized with civilians and army defectors taking up arms to face the government’s alleged bloody crackdown.

In central Hama province, a 30-year-old civilian was found killed Wednesday after being kidnapped by unidentified gunmen for three months, said SANA, adding that marks of torture was seen on the man’s body.

Zebari expressed his country’s “keenness on supporting the aspirations of the people of Syria in drawing its future and choosing its leaders through peacefully power circulation.”

“Iraq condemns violence in Syria and insists to follow a political solution and national dialogue and rejects foreign intervention in Syria’s crisis,” Zebari noted. He also said Iraq backs the AL efforts to resolve the Syrian crisis and praises the efforts by the UN envoy Kofi Annan in this respect.

Meanwhile, he said “there is no new initiative (by the summit) over Syria’s issue, but there is a draft resolution that would mesh together between the Arab and the international attitudes,” referring to that the Arab initiative would back the international efforts of UN envoy Annan.

“The situation in Syria has become international. We tried an Arab solution for the crisis, but it is now in the hands of the UN and its Security Council,” Zebari concluded.

Zebari said that the Syrian government approved the international plan to solve the crisis, but there is difference among the Syrian opposition parties which they have to unify their stances towards such a peace plan.

“Some talks have emerged that the conferees in Baghdad today are discussing an initiative for Syria, and in response we say that since Syria’s membership has been suspended, we are not going to deal with any initiative from the Arab League,” Jihad Makdissi said in a statement sent to Xinhua Wednesday.

Annan’s Syria Technical Team Led By Executive Who Quit Group CHD Amid Embezzlement Scandal

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, March 28 — The technical team sent to Syria by Kofi Annan was led by a former UN official who was forced to resign from a Geneva-based non-governmental organization amid an embezzlement scandal, Inner City Press has learned and confirmed.

For two weeks at the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesmen refused to answer Press questions about who was on the team of Annan, Ban’s predecessor as Secretary General whom Ban had name as his and the Arab League’s Joint Special Envoy to Syria.

Several Annan team members visible in television footage from Cairo and Damascus were former UN officials who left the UN under a cloud of scandal. There was Alan Doss, who while the UN’s top envoy to the Congo was found to have urged UNDP to break its rules and give his daughter a job.

There was Nicolas Michel, who left as the UN’s top legal officer after admitting taking $12,000 a month from the Swiss government to pay for a Park Avenue apartment while employed by the UN.

After the two weeks the UN in New York announced that Alan Doss was no longer on Annan’s Syria team, and Annan’s spokesman Ahmad Fawzi, himself another former UN communications official, told Inner City Press that Nicolas Michel was just a consultant, paid only when used.

But despite Annan’s spokesman Fawzi being less opaque than Ban’s, Inner City Press continues to receive complaints about members of Annan’s team, for example Martin Griffiths who’s described as in charge of the “technical team” Annan sent to Damascus.

Griffith worked for the UN then as the executive director of the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue (CHD) based in Geneva, as is the Kofi Annan Foundation. Griffith was forced to resign from CHD after a CHF 3.8 million fraud was exposed in June 2010, and confirmed by KPMG.

Based on this, a well placed diplomat told Inner City Press on Wednesday, “Griffiths could never have been hired for this by the UN. But Kofi has forced him onto the team, and like the rest of them he’s been given a UN contract and pay for at least six months, no matter what happens with the Syria work.”

Before publication, Inner City Press sought comment from Annan’s spokesman Fawzi, who to his credit responded with a not only a no-comment but also a confirmation, which still stops short of disclosing who else is on the team.

So there was a decree to stop all males 18-42 from traveling without a proper permit from the conscription office.

Then it was rescinded in 24 hours.

Let us dissect this

1. There is no clear institutional chain of command that went through this decision and counter decision. It just came and went just like that. Therefore there are no real institutions or mechanisms of understanding how the system works and there are no checks and balances and there no independent media to verify or investigate anything about this decision. The Animal Farm decided and rescinded.

2. The decision would have sent thousands of young men to bribe, hide, disappear, to avoid having to do this. The offices would have been flooded with people trying to get this piece of paper. They would have collected small amounts of money in bribes that they cannot follow through with.

3. I bet there will be a permission for people to pay the exchange so as not to do the military service also called Badal. This way they can have another mechanism to fleece the population. And this one they can collect the money to fuel the repression in contrast to the lowly clerk getting the daily bribe.

4. Once again this leads to the conclusion that there is a mafia at the helm.
All of this tells me that they are running out of money and running out of men to subdue the entire country and the more they destroy the more they will have resistance against them.
It seems that the number of defectors has grown to 100 000 not all of whom are fighting but they are also not working the army.

Can anyone from the pro regime explain to me how this decision came about, rescinded in 24 hours, and how in a so called reformed and modern state this could happen without accountability and explanation?

Finally, a proof that the veneer of modernity is extremely thin in the barbarian pro regime supporters is the news of four young Canadian Syrians assaulted by the pro regime demonstrators in Montreal for brandishing the revolution flag of Syria in public.

They were assaulted in public apparently and this proves that these thugs are intrinsically thugs and they are driven by a hatred that is blinding.

It is clear that the various stupid retarded sects cannot live together with the majority in the ME hence let them have their state and let them get out of our hair and stop forcing us into an oppressive farce called Somaria Alassad.

What a barbaric regime and what a despicable regime thugs and supporters.

The germs have multiplied and the rats are eternal. The resistance to antimicrobials is now legendary and devastating.

“Nobody that I know who is a so-called serious commentator on Syria is able to define exactly who the Syrian opposition is, what their goals are, or really knows much about the history of Syria or its geography, or its demographics – they really don’t know much at all”, said editorial columnist and author Ted Rall.

ted rall is a cartoonist. since when did he become a mena expert?

This has created an information black-out – with a major chunk of the story unavailable to viewers, what is shown being of questionable value.

Another ‘gem’ from the devil’s den, Katibet Alansar, showing that Alqaeda terrorists are targeting and destroying buildings in Homs, this is just couple of many clips of the attacks that the mainstream media is not showing at all and trying to cover the terrorists’ reality as nothing but Alqaeda local fighters.

Japanese want U.S. military bases gone
The U.S. military presence in Japan acquires special relevance recently due to proposals by Washington to reinstall a base on the island of Okinawa and indecision about Tokyo.

According to various data, not even the recent visit to this island by prime minister Yoshihiko Noda has achieved consensus between the two parties, despite a bilateral pact that was in effect, signed in 2006.

There is a sense of pathological euphoria among hard core regime supporters after the regime seems to have the upper hand for now, let me remind all that those who died and are still dying are mostly Syrians and the vast majority have died unnecessarily.

The regime will not be able to resist the winds of change and should not interpret the animosity against armed thugs as support for the regime which is still unpopular, unfit to lead and unable to unite Syrians.

The window of opportunity will close soon and if the Annan plan, or a modified version, does not materialize, more unrest and blood shed is likely. Nothing in Annan plan and the moderate opposition demands is extreme or unfair, I see it as the last chance to rectify an odd situation that was caused by the regime and made worse by violence from all sides.

I believe the regime is genuinely unable and unprepared to face the power of popular political demands, and it is too early to announce that this crisis is coming to an end, those who were wrongfully killed deserve more from all of us.

going over an old column, andrew tabler really pins down the regime’s pattern of deceit:

Assad rules through ambiguity and duplicity, and his speech on March 30, in which he blamed unrest sweeping his country on foreign “conspiracies” and refused to announce any specific reforms, indicates that he is not about to change his ways — at least not without a push from the outside. Assad has spent the last 11 years promising political “reform,” but has never got around to delivering it. This is a well-established pattern. He talks about peace with Israel while at the same time delivering Scud missiles to Hezbollah. He promises to keep his hands off Lebanon, but recently worked with Hezbollah to bring down the government in Beirut. He says, as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, that he wants a nuclear-free Middle East, but stonewalls International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors investigating the rubble of his North Korean-designed nuclear program.

11 years of promised reforms. eleven years! do loyalists really expect this year will be different?

equus, what do u.s. military bases in japan have to do with syria? what does assad banning foreign reporters have to do with japan?

Dahhhaa, First I separated the two paragraphs meaning new idea (English 101). If you mixed both…it explains how you are mixing facts about Syria two.

Second, if you fell to see the geopolitical control of the US in the world, who is now actually negotiating with Kazakhstan to keep a military base-check the CIA website for historical and background info- it indicates to the reader how far you are from reality and knowledge and for that I excuse you. However, you still haven’t answered my initial simple question.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and five like-minded lawmakers unveiled a new resolution on Syria Wednesday that calls for establishing safe zones inside Syria for civilians and support for arming the opposition against the regime of Bashar al Assad.

The non-binding resolution stops short of calling for direct U.S. military intervention in Syria, which McCain supports, and is meant to create a consensus on increasing U.S. support for the Syrian opposition that the greatest number of lawmakers can rally around. As of now, the resolution has six sponsors, mostly Republicans. In addition to McCain, they are Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), and John Hoeven (R-ND).

The resolution expresses that the Senate “recognizes that the people of Syria have an inherent right to defend themselves against the campaign of violence being conducted by the Assad regime” and “supports calls by Arab leaders to provide the people of Syria with the means to defend themselves against Bashar al-Assad and his forces, including through the provision of weapons and other material support, and calls on the President to work closely with regional partners to implement these efforts effectively.”

The resolution also urges President Barack Obama to work with Middle East countries to develop plans for creating safe havens in Syria, which the senators feel “would be an important step to save Syrian lives and to help bring an end to Mr. Assad’s killing of civilians in Syria,” urges the president to hold Syrian officials accountable for atrocities, and supports the “Friends of the Syrian People” contact group, which will hold its second meeting Sunday in Turkey.
{…}

#2. Naseer Ahmad said: “Patrick Cockburn of The Independent just wrote about the failure of the West to overthrow Assad.”

LOL Patrick Cockburn! A man who is obsessed with looking for and predicting “failure of the west”. It’s been his trademark specialistation for many years. He grabs that drum and beats it ritually every chance he gets, even though he’s been waiting decades for evidence to support his views.

It’s hilarious to see the block voters” here give him 20 thumbs up right away. That exceeds Cockburn’s normal number of fans by far anywhere, so it’s very suspicious to see that unnatural rush of votes supporting his marginal views on this small forum.

As I’ve frequently pointed out, the distraction faction/block voters of Assad apologists on SC are not very smart.

equus, i too have faulted u.s. corporate media. especially in their drumbeat over non-existent wmd in iraq. that doesn’t excuse assad from throwing reporters out of syria in attempt to cover up his war crimes.

i don’t defend u.s imperialism. however, syrians themselves are calling for intervention. mostly in the form of military arms shipment. thus far, the u.s. seems reluctant to offer them. when an oppressed people call for help, that isn’t an expression of u.s. imperialism!

Oh how cute, some poor american citizens on here and the beloved peace loving ex-president G.W.Bush, both want the ‘best’ possible military intervention in Syria with all the killing and destruction it will bring, Iraq is their witness, how sweet of ya!
فلاش رسالة الرئيس الأمريكي جورج بوش إلى الشعب السوريhttp://youtu.be/ETgA8oU7c-U

P.S. SNK and Sheila you can add the devil, sorry, Bush to the list of supporters.

Annan’s plan for Syria and transnational terrorism
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According to media reports, it is clear that the basic structure of the forces opposing the Syrian government now is the so-called Free Syrian Army (which announced its merger with the so-called Free Officers Movement). Apparently, its composition is patchy. It includes deserters and foreign fighters. The size of the group is estimated by experts at about 15-16,000.

The Free Syrian Army is trying to distance itself from terrorist activities against civilians, saying that they fight only against the regime of Bashar al-Assad and his punitive apparatus (the army and Mukhabarat). But it is not doing a very good job. Even the Western media has reported on its terrorist attacks against civilians and practice of killing and torturing supporters of al-Assad. It is hard to say what the cause of such terrorist activities is, whether it is the “free army’s” weak hold on their subordinates or the parallel activities of armed groups. But the fact remains. Free Syrian Army is increasingly resorting to terrorist activities.

Here we should talk a bit about terrorists in Syria. In February, Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri accused President Assad of anti-Islamic activities and called for him to be ousted. At the same time, the media reports report on Al Qaeda activities in Syria began to pour in. This situation made Washington suspicious, and the US Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, expressed concern, saying that terrorist attacks in Damascus and Aleppo resembled the work of Al Qaeda.

In general, one can say there is no doubt that Al Qaeda is operating in Syria. This, along with arms supplies to the Syrian opposition from abroad, cannot but cause serious concern. In particular, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has pointed it out. Syrian officials with whom I was able to talk during a trip to Damascus in February said that the main suppliers of arms are France and Qatar. And major supply routes pass through Lebanon and Turkey.

Evidence of the effectiveness of this activity is the recent fierce battle for Homs. As it turned out, the armed opposition had Spigot and Milan anti-tank wire-guided missile systems, the latest sniper weapons and various means of communication. If large quantities of such weapons get into the hands of terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, terrorist activity in the Middle East and beyond could increase.

In addition to Al Qaeda and its offshoots, the so-called Arab brigades are active in Syria. These are mostly Libyan militants who were “liberated” after the war in Libya. However, according to the Syrian security forces, there are also Afghans, Saudis, Qataris, fighters from Sudan, Yemen, Pakistan and other countries. In other words, a large number of small terrorist groups that report to no one and pursue their own goals operate on Syrian territory.

The current situation poses a serious obstacle to the normalization of the situation in Syria and, in particular, the implementation of the Annan’s Plan. Even with the active assistance of all members of the UN Security Council, it is simply impossible to force Syria’s opposition to stop the violence because it is decentralized and does not obey the leaders that formally rule it.
{…}http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_03_28/69887935/

Following James Baker comment; Let us assume President Bashar resigns today or the whole regime leaves power at this stage; would there be “soft handling” or “smooth transaction”? and to whom? radicals? confused and separated Istanbul SC? opposition with dirty blooded hands whom sold the country cheaply?

What would be the road map for Syria? short & long term? who will decide Syria future? Qatar? USA? …?

Would clean handed and brain oppositions such as Mr. Haytham Manna3 or Michael Kilo and others will take part on Syria future? or they will stay in Europe fighting the new situation again?
Has any of SC members talked future plans? or just looking for revenge? what is after revenge …? Revenge from all “Alawais”? Risking the current ethnic harmony between all religions and ethnic groups for civil war ‘God forbid’?

I am not trying to give an excuse supporting the current regime here, but those Q.s & this discussion is going-on in Syria between University students cuz non of the oppositions gave answers for security to their future. All has the right to think for the best to their kids and families. They are living in Syria … not out-side talking of history & pass their hate cus they faced problems or faced injustice in the past and it is right time for a revenge!
Syrian people has the right to look forward to better future … not revenge!! not moving from ‘Bad’ to ‘worse’ … at least ‘bad’ can turn to better!

I thank JAD and strongly support his comment in a previous article that how this type of ‘revolution’ full of blood and dirty loyal money made many Syrian people turn back to support President Bashar the current ‘regime’…

“To me, the biggest challenge facing Syria is changing the regime without becoming another Libya”

I thought the Libyan experience was the goal. The regime has the upper hand, the army is in full control, and Assad is walking the streets of Baba Amro. The majority fo Syrian people are against the level of violence Syria encoutered lateley. Many of them miss the days where security and peace was the norm.

I think people should wake up and realize that Libya, Iraqi, Tunisia, and Egypt examples are not going to apply to Syria. Some are threatening a civil war may happen, if it was going to happen we should have seen it by now. I am not seeing the regime would be able to provide a a fix for a Jihadist who wakes up and decides to meet his God, so he go and explode himself. We have to realize that this is going to be the norm for long times to come. But these Jihadist attacks will only make the Syrian people more united against Radical Islamists. I am sorry to use this word but it seems to me that radical islamists is the root of evil

Jad 38
“Free officers movement”, a copycat of the Yemeni Ahrar, except that those had no Islamic revendication. When are they going to have one single motto or idea that is not a redux of something we have heard before?

First my point is that the sense of a Syrian identity is so weak that people identify themselves through their clan sects family tribe etc… in Syria. Therefore we are not capable of living together.

Second the minorities rightly demand a secular state but with a caveat that is that they remain sect based minority while the majority remains purely secular.

Third my reference to germs and rats is that the rebels in Syria were described by the President as an infection that needs eradication and the former dictator of Libya referred to the rebels as rats.

Fourth it is the Western based regime supporters that are the very essence of contradiction for despite enjoying the great free West they have remained and brought with them their prejudices that unfortunately are still medieval sect and clan based.

So the popular uprising is one of germs and rats and we both know that the germs can multiply and acquire resistance and rats are extremely prolific and resilient.

It is good to realize that the AL and Anna have now an efficient model, EU-validated.
From the Angry Arab:
Yemeni presidential election: 100% voted yes
Tarek from Yemen sent me this comment (I cite with his permission): “PS, your comments on Yemen also spot on, but let me add more fuel to your fire, not only was the Presidential election a one man affair but there was also no choice of voting no. There was no “No box” and an X or anything like that was registered as a Yes vote… It was only at the last minute when a EU official decided that a 100% win might be a bit much they decided to count 15,000 or so damaged ballots as No; hence the 99.xx% win… You couldn’t make it up if you tried…”http://angryarab.blogspot.de/

Some people, the pro-regime folks, see the glass 1/2 empty! I see it 1/2 full! This is the key sentences in James Baker’s above quotation, which is not as favorable to Bashar as the pro-regime folks here think:

“[…]Assad has lost legitimacy. You can’t murder your own people and expect to survive for very long and when he goes, and my view ultimately he will go.[…]”

Yes, Bashar has lost legitimacy and he will ultimately go to hell or somewhere!

Yes, Free Syria will abandon Iran and Hizb@@@, which stood with the dictator and against the Syrian people. However, a free Syria will NOT abandon the Golan and recognize Israeli occupation/colonization!

If the editor who posted this James Baker quotation was excited that Baker might have disfavorable views about the Free Syrian Army, I say to him that the devil is better than Bashar’s army, which tortures and kills children!!!!!!!

cherry-picking the news media only to find quotations and views, which are disadvantageous to the courageous Syrian Revolution, is a biased and slanted editorial policy!

I understand that in this context the language gets tougher and both sides abuse the language for their goal. I think Omen was right to point out to you that this dehumanization which is the obvious reason one is called dog, germ or rat. That will at least in my eyes always lead to aggression, and for most its ok to kill animals than humans. All massacres follow this pattern, first an entity is declared criminal,or foreign then the dehumnization sets the last stage: the killing. We all should be very careful, those who adore Assad are human beings as well, we should not do the same mistake to rejoice in hate.

Some Alawites are taking part in the revolution, some prominent ones fear for their lives, others work secretly and many others know at least deep inside their heart that the Assads have committed horrible despicable crimes.

Sectarian-cleansing against the 80-85% Syrian Sunni majority! Below is a quote that will NOT be cherry-picked by the editors! That’s why Prof. Landis should ask a Sunni Syrian to join SC editorial board! No, I am not interested in this editorial task because-unlike others-I admit being very biased against Bashar’s murderous regime and I don’t have time! I am NOT neutral! No self-interest here!

AL QAA, Lebanon — Sunni Muslims who have fled Syria described a government crackdown that is more pervasive and more sectarian than previously understood, with civilians affiliated with President Bashar al-Assad’s minority religious sect shooting at their onetime neighbors as the military presses what many Sunnis see as a campaign to force them to flee their homes and villages in some sections of the country.
[…]

Jurgen my point exactly. It is the Ghaddafi and Fredos of this world and the Cauecescus that called their people dehumanizing quotes such as germs and rats and insects and worms.
Well these human beings are now in revolt and rightly so.

There are sectarians in every sect including (and we have seen this repeatedly) from fundamentalists of all stripes from atheist fundamentalists to salafis to mormons to you name it.

Some on this blog that are pro regime have only a veneer of modernity and call for dialogue when the gun is pointed to our heads and the secret security services are running amock in the country.

Some have called all opposition as traitors or fanatics of this or that denomination.

No doubt there are many in every sect that are for change and for freedom; the problem is that the discourse and the actions of the regime are actually doubly criminal for they are now forcing the Alawi sect to do its dirty work and have essentially cornered them into a horrible Sophie’s choice, either you join in killing and ethnic cleansing ( as reported by the NYT today by the way ) or you are going to be massacred by the majority and your daughters are going back to being servants and all of this garbage.

This is the point I am trying to make, perhaps the wording and syntax were not clear.

We are all victims of oppression, and as the stories from East Germany came about after the break up of the Soviet Union, the Stazy used family members and neighbors to spy and report on each other and even spouses were recruited to that effect.

This is how degrading and dehumanizing the system is to the point that it is now accepable to torture and kill children and to have Fredo declare that we will rebuild BA. Well like the US in Vietnam destroying a village to save it is not going to solve your problems.

With 9,000 Syrians dead and the Assad regime increasingly isolated and under political, moral, military assault, it appears that the Obama Administration has made its choice: it is abandoning efforts to force the end of that regime.

The plan developed by Kofi Annan is a life-saving development for Assad, as it guarantees months of diplomatic wrangling while Assad methodically murders his way to victory. Town after town, neighborhood after neighborhood may be bombed and reduced to rubble, the death toll may double or triple, but there will be endless meetings in nice hotels in Europe and the Middle East. We can see that future right now, in stories like this: “Syria accepted a cease-fire drawn up by U.N. envoy Kofi Annan on Tuesday, but the diplomatic breakthrough was swiftly overshadowed by intense clashes between government soldiers and rebels that sent bullets flying into Lebanon.” A few more months of this is all that Assad needs.

to waste time doing something that has already been attempted is mind boggling. ya gotta say is there a shrink in the house?!

The boat that is commanded by Captain Assad and his crew is tightly made that water cannot enter or escape.

but the SNC Titanic is leaking profusely when it is not supposed to leak at all, so many jumped ship, Kurds, Haytham Malah…plus and plus. So cry me a river folks, YES syria is wounded, so keep your nasty salt bags away, syria can do without.

stop the furious tirade against syria it’s time to keep the guns at bay.

the old man said: You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em

I posted it as a rebuttal to the David Ignatius article that Ehsani posted, and I do agree with this articles sentiments.

This particular part caught my eye:

“If realpolitik means watching Assad kill more protesters and level more apartment houses, I suppose that’s right. The usual criticism of realpolitik is that it lacks a moral dimension, and that is certainly true here”

Delhi summit: BRICS says dialogue only answer for Syria, Iran
{…}
The unfolding crisis in Syria took some serious brainstorming to reach a common BRICS position.

China and Russia, the two veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council, had voted against the US and Arab League-backed UN resolution on grounds that it amounted to a regime change. India had supported the resolution.

The BRICS declaration, however, saw the leaders voicing “deep concern at the current situation in Syria” as they called for “an immediate end to all violence and violations of human rights in that country”.

“Global interests would best be served by dealing with the crisis through peaceful means that encourage broad national dialogues that reflect the legitimate aspirations of all sections of Syrian society and respect Syrian independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty,” it said.

The declaration supported “a Syrian-led inclusive political process”, an explanation India had used to justify its vote on the UN’s Syria resolution, and welcomed the joint efforts of the UN and the Arab League.

The BRICS leaders also welcomed the appointment of Kofi Annan, a former UN secretary general, as the joint special envoy on the Syrian crisis and supported him in his efforts play a role in spurring a political resolution of the crisis.

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned against external interference, saying that it has the potential to destroy the dialogue process. Medvedev added that he has proposed a collective humanitarian aid by the BRICS countries to the Syrian people.

The BRICS’ stand on Syria and Iran will be viewed with unease by the West which has tended to see the five-nation grouping as an attempt at an alternate world order.

In this respect, the fourth BRICS summit in Delhi marked the evolution of a group focused on global economic governance issues to one which is trying to achieve greater political coherence.

This was reflected in the BRICS’ formulation on the festering crisis in the Middle East and North Africa.

“We agree that the period of transformation taking place in the Middle East and North Africa should not be used as a pretext to delay resolution of lasting conflicts but rather it should serve as an incentive to settle them, in particular the Arab-Israeli conflict,” said the declaration.

WASHINGTON — Maybe it’s time for Syrian revolutionaries to take “yes” for an answer from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and back a U.N.-sponsored “managed transition” of power there, rather than rolling on toward a civil war that will bring more death and destruction for the region.

Syria announced Tuesday that it was ready to accept a peace plan proposed by U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan. The Syrian announcement in Beijing followed endorsement of the plan by China and Russia. The proposal has many weaknesses, but it could open the way toward a “soft landing” in Syria that would remove Assad without shattering the stability of the country.

Yes, I recognize that moderate diplomatic solutions like these are for wimps. The gung-ho gang has been advocating supplying arms to the Syrian opposition, setting up no-fly zones and other versions of a military solution. Morally, it’s hard to dispute the justice of the opposition’s cause; the problem is that these military solutions will get a lot more innocent civilians killed, and destroy the delicate balance of the Syrian state.

We should learn from recent history in the Middle East and seek a non-military solution in Syria — even with the inevitable fuzziness and need for compromise with unpleasant people. A Syria peace deal will also give a starring role to Russia and China, two countries that don’t deserve the good press. That’s OK with me: Vladimir Putin gets a ticker-tape parade if he can help broker a relatively peaceful departure for Assad.

The case for this cautious, managed transition can be summarized with a four-letter word: Iraq.

Looking back at the Iraq War, one of the most damaging mistakes was that after toppling Saddam Hussein, the U.S. went on to destroy Iraq’s state structure and its army. Without these institutions, the country had no stability and Iraqis retreated for self-protection to the most basic loyalties of sect and tribe. In this sense, the U.S. invasion unintentionally and tragically sent Iraq hurtling backward in time. Iraq gained a measure of “democracy,” but lost social cohesion.

The U.S. shouldn’t make the same mistake in Syria, no matter how appealing the opposition’s pleas for weapons. We’ve seen this movie before. We know that it leads to a kind of lawlessness that’s very hard to reverse. And we know, too, that for all the perversions of Assad and his Baathist goons, the Syrian state and army are national institutions that transcend the ruling family, his Alawite sect or the corrupt Baathists who hijacked the nation in the 1960s.

I credit the Obama administration for resisting the growing chorus of calls to arm the Syrian rebels — and for continuing to seek Moscow’s help even after the Russians’ foot-dragging that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (imprudently but accurately) described last month as “despicable.”

It’s a moment for realpolitik: The West needs Russia’s help in removing Assad without a civil war, and Russia needs to broker a transition to bolster its future influence in the Arab world. That’s the pragmatic logic that’s driving Annan’s peace effort.
(,,,)

Maybe some were too afraid to come to Baghdad. They are not known for their courage.

Fewer than half Arab leaders attend Iraq summit

HAMZA HENDAWI and LARA JAKES | Associated Press – 1 hr 52 mins ago

BAGHDAD (AP) — Fewer than half the leaders of the Arab world showed up at an Arab summit in Baghdad on Thursday, a snub to the Iraqi government that reflects how trenchantly the sectarian division between Sunnis and Shiites and the rivalry with neighboring Iran define the Middle East’s politics today.
…
The Gulf nations, particularly Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have been pushing behind the scenes for more assertive action to end the conflict. Privately, they see little benefit in the Arab League’s efforts to reach a peaceful settlement and prefer instead to see a small core of nations banding together to act on their own.

Among the options they are considering are arming the Syrian rebels and creating a safe haven for the opposition along the Turkish-Syrian border to serve as a humanitarian refuge or staging ground for anti-regime forces. Such a step would require help from Turkey — the country best positioned to defend such a safe haven — but so far Ankara has seemed reluctant.
(..)

The tragedy of religious freedom in Syria
By Elizabeth Shakman Hurd
March 29, 2012

Religious freedom is the common sense of our era. It is easy to be swept up in the hype. We are told that the guarantee of religious freedom is what stands between us and pre-modern political orders based on tyrannical forms of religious authority that leave women and minorities in the dust. If religious freedom is what you need to be for if you are against the oppression of women and minorities, then who could oppose it? Who could even question it? Religious freedom stands in for the good and the right in many complex, difficult and often violent situations.

Or does it?

Take the crisis in Syria. There is fear in some quarters that should the Assad regime fall, non-Muslim (and possibly non-Sunni Muslim) Syrians will suffer from a lack of religious freedom. USA Today reports that “Christians in Syria, where Muslims have risen up against President Bashar Assad, have been subjected to murder, rape and kidnappings in Damascus and rebellious towns, according to Christian rights groups.” The momentum builds, as persecution of Christians takes on a life of its own and may, in some cases, come to define the conflict on the ground. The logic of this story is clear: The result of overthrowing Assad will be Christian persecution. What we need, in this view, is religious freedom.

Launching military actions in Syria – shortest, most dangerous way – Medvedev

NEW DELHI, March 29 (Itar-Tass) —— Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev says for settlement of the situation in Syria it is necessary to support a dialogue between the government and the opposition, and not to start military actions.

“Detailed principles of normalisation of the situation in that country have been offered lately. We believe it important not to let interference from outside into Syria’s affairs, it is important to let the government, on one hand, and the opposition, on the other hand, start at last a dialogue, not to ruin it, not to say the dialogue is bound to fail and only military actions may bring order to the country. This is the shortest and most dangerous way,” he told reporters on Thursday following the BRICS /Brazil, Russia, India, China, SAR/ summit.

AL QAA, Lebanon — Sunni Muslims who have fled Syria described a government crackdown that is more pervasive and more sectarian than previously understood, with civilians affiliated with President Bashar al-Assad’s minority religious sect shooting at their onetime neighbors as the military presses what many Sunnis see as a campaign to force them to flee their homes and villages in some sections of the country.
…
The refugees here seemed ambivalent about describing what they saw as sectarian cleansing. Opposition supporters said they feared playing into the government narrative, and wanted the international community to view them as nonsectarian in their quest for outside military assistance.
(…)

Syria extended the Period of Accepting Compensation Claims for Damages by Terrorist Groups
(Dp-news – Sana)http://www.dp-news.com/en/detail.aspx?articleid=115988
DAMASCUS- Syria`s Local Administration Ministry extended the period of accepting compensation claims by citizens whose private properties were damaged by armed terrorist groups another 15 days in all the provinces.

In a circular issued on Wednesday, the Ministry announced the formation of a central committee chaired by the Local Administration Minister and comprised of the ministers of Finance, the Interior and the Justice and the governors in a measure to compensate the affected citizens for the damages caused to their uninsured properties by the sabotage acts of terrorist groups.

The circular indicated that sub-committees were also formed in the provinces for these purposes that are chaired by the governor of each province

i don’t defend u.s imperialism. however, syrians themselves are calling for intervention. mostly in the form of military arms shipment. thus far, the u.s. seems reluctant to offer them. when an oppressed people call for help, that isn’t an expression of u.s. imperialism!

——
Dear Omen,

This is a common human being error, it’s very known in social psychology that we tend to generalize, it’s wrong to state Syrians themselves are calling for intervention. It’s not ALL Syrians, in fact, only segment of Syrians with AVAAZ posters exhibited on Cnn with forefront Danny boy or Galioun asking for Israeli,US intervention. The tea party in the US does not represent ALL Americans. Professors who worked with Galioun and former students at La Sorbonne are flabbergasted by his stance. They cannot believe this is the same person who was among them. Something must have happened and we ignore??

Even Mrs Tara who harbors ill feeling toward the regime at certain point on this blog said: Galioun must go. It makes many people wonder why Mrs Clinton communicating solely with Galioun’s group? If, the benefit of Syrians is genuinely at heart, she’ll accept communicating with other opposition groups. Even better, if she is really concerned about human lives, she’d call Assad directly and reason with him. If she’s really concerned, she’ll send containers of first aid kits and food and not weapon. People are collecting money in shopping malls for Syria and first thing they tell you, we are the opposition but not with Galioun. US officials cannot take one segment of the population and pretend it speaks in name of ALL Syrians. This is the essence of democracy. The US must stop ignoring other Syrian opposition groups and pro-groups. As Mr. Obama keeps saying all options are on the table, ALL voices must be on the table too.

The Muslim Arab leaders will have choice alcoholic wines from Europe in their menu at this summit but will behead commoners for doing same back at home.

The communique from this summit will have to be first approved by the US State department before it is made public by these Arab leaders. Sometimes I wonder how the US is able to control and herd these Arab leaders at their will to any place they wish under the guise of ‘Friends of Iraq, Friends of Libya, Friends of Syria; the average Arab would suicide bomb their people on US behalf after the CIA pays Islamic Mullahs to indoctrinate their followers of the abundance of virgins in paradise to become would-be suicide bombers while the Mullahs fly first class to deliver extremist sermon across the Arab world and Muslim nations and ride choice cars, horses and camels and even building Formula One circuits and go for regular medical checkups in US so that they would know how many useful years is left in their bodies.

Former Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril traveled to Brussels to warn European leaders about the dangers of abandoning their work in Libya before the country is stabilized.

By Robert Marquand, Staff writer / March 29, 2012

Former Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said at a European conference that his struggling nation feels practically “abandoned” by Europe – where attention is focused on Syria – and that the youth who brought the 2011 revolution are “being completely left out of the picture” ahead of elections in June.
……
It is a “tragic mistake … a fatal mistake” to abandon Libya at this time, said the former leader of the Transitional National Council. “Libya is in a political and security vacuum, and vacuums do not remain vacuums. Extremism might spread at any moment,” Mr. Jibril warned. “I am afraid that early indicators are there right now.”

Britain allocated 500,000 pounds (US$795,000) Thursday to supply non-lethal aid to Syria’s opposition, pledging assistance to groups inside the country for the first time ahead of international talks this weekend on how best to support the nation’s rebels.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said the offer of new funds includes an “agreement in principle” to provide support to opposition members inside Syria.

Until now, Britain has supplied assistance to exiles in the West and opponents of President Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria’s neighboring countries, amid concern over the practicalities of delivering items into Syria and fears that equipment could end up in the hands of extremists.

Precise details of what type of support and equipment will be offered are still being determined, though the package is likely to include secure telephones.

“It will help hard-pressed opposition groups and brave civil society organizations inside and outside the country to document the regime’s violations and gain the skills and resources they need to help build a democratic future for Syria,” Hague planned to say in a speech later Thursday, according to excerpts released in advance.

The United States and several European and Arab nations will discuss providing aid to Syrian rebels at a meeting in Istanbul on April 1.

(…)

It is hoped that providing secure telephones will help opposition figures improve their communication with those trying to deliver humanitarian assistance inside Syria and allow them to better coordinate efforts to keep residents safe.

The U.K. already has spent about 450,000 pounds to support Syria’s opposition outside the country over the last eight months, offering training in strategic communications and support to those documenting abuses by Assad’s regime in a conflict which the U.N. says has left more than 9,000 people dead.

Last month, Britain sent a team of officials and legal experts to Syria’s neighboring nations to document the Assad regime’s violence. The mission was intended to gather viable evidence for use in any future prosecutions.

Five leaders of an Islamic charity convicted of using the organization as a means of funneling money and supplies to Hamas were denied an appeal by a US federal appeals court on Wednesday.

Hamas is designated as a terror organization by the United States. The Hamas charter states “by virtue of its being Jewish and of having a Jewish population, [Israel] defies Islam and the Muslims,” and vilifies “those who revolve in the Zionist orbit, aiming at obstructing the road before the Jihad fighters” such as ”the Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, B’nai B’rith”. “For our struggle against the Jews is extremely wide-ranging and grave, so much so that it will need all the loyal efforts we can wield,” according the the charter, “until the enemies are defeated and Allah’s victory prevails.”

The Texas-based Holy Land Foundation, once the largest Islamic charity in the United States, was shuttered by former President George W. Bush following the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York.

Ghassan Elashi, Holy Land’s former chairman, and Shukri Abu Baker, Holy Land’s CEO, were convicted of supporting a specially designated terror organization, money laundering and tax fraud and each sentenced to 65 years in prison. Mufid Abdulgader and Aabdulrahman Odeh were each convicted of three counts of conspiracy, and received 20 and 15 years respectively. Mohammed El-Mezain was convicted of one count of conspiracy to support a terrorist organization and received a 15 year sentence. The Holy Land Foundation was convicted of all 32 counts.

The convicted men claimed they were denied a fair trial when US District Judge Jorge Solis, who presided over their 2008 retrial in a Dallas federal court, allowed the testimony of two Israeli witnesses whose identities were protected.
(…)

It is illegal by federal law to provide material aid and support to a designated terrorist organization. “…the defendants facilitated Hamas’ activity by furthering its popularity among Palestinians and by providing a funding resource. This, in turn, allowed Hamas to concentrate its efforts on violent activity,” Judge Carolyn King wrote on behalf of the appellate court.

Well Alan, if the Australians sign it, it will be to torpedo it. I can’t believe they are going to drop their great UK-US alliance.

Warning for “free officers” wandering in Turkey:

http://www.egyptindependent.com/node/740806
Turkish prosecutors demanded 15–20 year jail sentences for 364 serving and retired military officers at a coup plot trial on Thursday, marking a dark day for a military that until recently held the power to make or break governments. (…)

The Burial Brigade of Homs
An Executioner for Syria’s Rebels Tells His Story

Human Rights Watch has condemned abuses committed by Syrian rebels in their stronghold of Homs. But one member of a rebel “burial brigade” who has executed four men by slitting their throats defended his work in an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE. “If we don’t do it, nobody will hold these perpetrators to account,” he said.
Hussein can barely remember the first time he executed someone. It was probably in a cemetery in the evening, or at night; he can’t recall exactly. It was definitely mid-October of last year, and the man was Shiite, for sure. He had confessed to killing women — decent women, whose husbands and sons had protested against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime. So the rebels had decided that the man, a soldier in the Syrian army, deserved to die, too.

Hussein didn’t care if the man had been beaten into a confession, or that he was terrified of death and had begun to stammer prayers. It was his tough luck that the rebels had caught him. Hussein took out his army knife and sliced the kneeling man’s neck. His comrades from the so-called “burial brigade” quickly interred the blood-stained corpse in the sand of the graveyard west of the Baba Amr area of the rebel stronghold of Homs. At the time, the neighborhood was in the hands of the insurgents.
That first execution was a rite of passage for Hussein. He now became a member of the Homs burial brigade. The men, of which there are only a handful, kill in the name of the Syrian revolution. They leave torture to others; that’s what the so-called interrogation brigade is for. “They do the ugly work,” says Hussein, who is currently being treated in a hospital in the Lebanese city of Tripoli. He was injured when a piece of shrapnel became lodged in his back during the army’s ground invasion of Baba Amr in early March.
{…}
‘Sometimes We Acquit People’

The rebels in Homs began carrying out regular executions in August of last year, shortly after the conflict in the country began to escalate, says Hussein’s comrade Abu Rami. In his Adidas tracksuit, he looks like any other convalescent in the hospital. But Abu Rami is a senior member of the Homs militia. The other Syrians in the ward greet him respectfully and pay close attention to his words.

“Since last summer, we have executed slightly fewer than 150 men, which represents about 20 percent of our prisoners,” says Abu Rami. Those prisoners who are not convicted and sentenced to death are exchanged for rebel prisoners or detained protesters, he says. But the executioners of Homs have been busier with traitors within their own ranks than with prisoners of war. “If we catch a Sunni spying, or if a citizen betrays the revolution, we make it quick,” says the fighter. According to Abu Rami, Hussein’s burial brigade has put between 200 and 250 traitors to death since the beginning of the uprising.
He dismisses any doubts about whether these people were really all guilty and whether they received a fair trial. “We make great efforts to investigate thoroughly,” Abu Rami says. “Sometimes we acquit people, too.”

Every day, Umm Jihad and her husband must patiently wait in a line for bread at a Damascus bakery as skyrocketing prices mean they can no longer afford other essential foods.

“Bread is the main element of our meals because the cost of everything else has increased so much,” Umm Jihad told AFP, adding: “We are using bread to replace rice,” a staple of the Arab diet.

Ordinary citizens of Damascus said they cannot afford to buy fruit and vegetables as they feel the pinch of soaring inflation fueled by international sanctions on Syria over its regime’s crackdown on dissent.

Outraged by its failure to halt the year-long violence, which the United Nations says has killed more than 9,000 people, Western and Arab states have slapped a wide range of punitive measures on Syria.

Rounds of sanctions targeting Syria’s banking system and oil exports have dealt a heavy blow to foreign exchange earnings and stoked the inflation rate, which official data says reached 15 percent between June and December.

BRIC Nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) signed Local Currency agreement at Summit. They will not trade in U.S. dollars anymore. Agreements around the world between Countries to Drop U.S. dollar for trade (including Australia)

“Including Australia” : how is that possible?? The Brics signed a hoax or what?

The blog posting Alan headlined included excerpts from sources including the Indian Financial Express:

Do not forget even Australia (a stanch U.S. ally) has made an agreement with China on March 23 2012, to trade in the Chinese Yuan and not the U.S. dollars for $30 billion over 3 years time.

Mar. 23 – The central banks of China and Australia signed a currency swap agreement yesterday that will allow RMB200 billion (A$30 billion) worth of local currencies to be exchanged between the two countries over three years.

[ … ]

“The agreement reflects the increasing opportunities available to settle trade between the two countries in Chinese renminbi and to make RMB-denominated investments,” the Reserve Bank of Australia said in a press release.

Mina, I would agree that it is difficult to sort political/economic news into piles like good, bad, black, white, fake, true, 100% terror . . . or similar.

You seem to be doing okay with the sorting into piles. I thought it was interesting that long-term economic restructuring of world markets away from sole dominance of the US dollar reaches to Australia. Although China’s currency is not fully convertible, and not yet an instrument of global reserves as is the US dollar or euro, it is increasingly global.

Moreover, if you look at Chinese trade the world over, and in particular Australia/China exchanges (China is Australia’s largest source of imports and largest export destination) of some 80 billion dollars a year of exchange, it makes sense to structure their financial instruments to offer Australian dollars for investment in Australia, and renminbi for back-investment in China.

Many nations engage in mutual currency arrangements (as with Syria/China) without reference to dollars. This seems like a good thing in this multi-polar world of multiple relationships.

Mina, I have explained my interest in and relationship with Syria (Canadian leftist do-gooder with no family ties), but beyond your note that you were an old Maoist, will we ever find out what your special ties to Syria are? I note you go after Juergen or Tara or whoever for things they have willingly shared here — their native land, cultural affiliations, and present citizenship at least.

I know that it is unpleasant to be harried about one’s (presumed) allegiances — whether with the Terrorists or the Regimists, to Western Plots or Local Mafia — yet I wonder what prevents some folks from coming clean with their own allegiances and possible biases.

I wish you would be less reactive and snide, and enter into conversations rather than asides and tirades. Your eye for hypocrisy, double-dealing, sleaze and murky political motives is sharp. I think it would be way more effective if you outline a role for yourself in the Syrian dialogue, or dialogue-to-come.

I do not get a seat at any table in regards to Syria. Someone like Tara or Jad or OTW or SOD or SNK or Norman and many many others can rightfully ask for a seat at that discussion. They are Syrians at home or abroad with various strong family connections, and in any restructured Syria to come, whether under Assad and the Baath or under a future horror, they need to be involved in the changes as interlocutors and interested parties. The repatriation of exiles and expatriates and their skills and money will be essential. 100% agreement across the board of all the opinion stripes and colours here with the notion that Syrians themselves will solve the issues ahead. I can but witness from afar, ask questions, observe events and wonder.

The very first real live Syrian I met in Vancouver was housed in the downtown refugee reception centre. He was in a wheelchair, a result of state torture. More than any other event in the year I have read at Syria Comment, this evidence of a terrible crime done to Syria was made apparent. It seared into my heart what basics were denied Syrian citizens (or part-citizens like Kurds). What hope had he for his land and his family and his future? Was a new land his only hope? Could he ever go home to Hasaka?

I will visit Syria as an outsider, a visitor and a friend (I hope). I can imagine many many thousands more who would return as patriots in a true reconciliation. I have no right to hector or sneer at any Syrian whatsoever. They live great horrors in their hearts.

Will you be asking for a seat at the table of dialogue, or just visit Syria as a friend, Mina?

question: why does the angry arab call this spokesperson for the snc “cicero”?

Second expert–wait, this guy is familiar. Is he not the famous Cicero of the Syrian opposition? “Radwan Ziadeh, a member of the Syrian National Council and the executive director of the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Washington

is as’ad merely describing him as an orator? is this a descriptive radwan ziadeh is commonly known as?

And if you wonder why he didn’t attend the meetings in Istanbul, he is busy with his masters begging for military intervention in DC, he gave his statement with Ford, but strange enough he was kept hidden.

Expect things to cool down for a bit. Maybe 1 month. Do not forget that between early August and mid-October, it was similarly, all very quiet and Assad seemed to have the upper hand. While actually the opposition was regrouping and doing some major internal assessments.

Also expect the death toll to be relatively low (around 30) in the coming weeks [ compared with an average of 100 dead per day a few weeks ago].

However, expect the size and frequency of protests and demonstrations to rise, especially in Hama, Latakia, Halab, Raqqa ( i.e areas with less FSA activity).

However, those who think Assad has been able to re-establish control over Idleb is mistaken. He attacked sarmin and sarqeb and managed to drive out the FSA, but his forces did not occupy the towns and the residents and activists have returned already. the maximum he can do is to do sudden massive attacks on Idleb townsd, he cannot ( at this moment) occupy every town and vilage in Idleb with his troops.

Particularly damaging for the regime has been the loss of a large number of low-level informers and collaborators in Halab and Reef Halab. This has greatly reduced the security forces’ capabilities to make arrests.

However the middle classes of Halab are still strong and vocal in their opposition to the FSA.

First expert: ““You can imagine a deal in which the Iranians say, ‘We’re not going to support Assad,’ in exchange for a deal on nukes,” said Bruce W. Jentleson, a professor of public policy and political science at Duke University and a former adviser at the State Department.”

my fear is the reverse: the west agrees to allow assad to remain in power in exchange for iran agreeing to halt weapons program. the betrayal in such a “deal” would be staggering.

Mina !
in continuation
Brave New Bank? BRICS moot dropping dollar, IMFhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vg9qvYwQHg
The BRICS summit has wrapped up in India. Creating an alternative global lender and stepping away from the dollar as a reserve currency were among their main objectives. RT’s Priya Sridhar is in New Delhi.
Earlier RT spoke to Dr Sreeram Chaulia, who is a Vice Dean at the Jindal School of International Affairs. He believes institutions like the IMF and the World Bank have outlived their uselfulness.

‘Want gas? Stop wars! UK fuel panic orchestrated by NWO’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8XQKrruMfQ
There is panic at the petrol pumps in Britain, ahead of a possible tanker driver strike. Some stations have already run dry after a government minister suggested people should fill their tanks and stock up with fuel cans. RT discusses the topic with political analyst Peter Eyre who’s in Birmingham in the UK.

What does this have to do with Syria, Alan? Oh, I get it! When your own country is imploding in front of you r goofy face, you look elsewhere for the comforting notion that other people are having problems, too.

BTW, wouldn’t it be nice if the only problem Syria had was an impending truckers’ strike. But then again, that wouldn’t happen. Besho would send the Shabeeha to crush it….

UAE asked German government to shut down the office of the Konrad Adenauer foundation ( named after the first german chancellor after the 2nd world war). This foundation is unlike the famous Goethe foundation not an official government funded foundation, its funded by the Christian democratic party which is the ruling coalitian party of Angela Merkel. Most big parties have such foundations, and in my opinion they do a great job acting as an vivid bridge between the countries. The move came after the office in Cairo got shut down recently.

Hans-Gert Pöttering the head of the foundation sees in its closure of this office in Abu Dhabi an “warning sign for the democratic development in Arab countries”.

Foundation chief Poettering sees parallels between the office closures in Cairo and Abu Dhabi. Apparently the political foundations in the Arab world “is seen increasingly unwelcome.”

In a statement Merkel said: “We are sorry, of course, that the foundation needs to be closed.” Nevertheless, the federal government would try to” continue working closely “with the UAE. At
the same time, Berlin will work towards a speedy re-opening.
According to the CDU-politician, the decision was not justified by the UAE with the work of the Adenauer Foundation on its own. The issue is a “total closure of all the foreign foundations in the UAE.

The office was the only of that kind which was opened after an formal invitation by the UAE in 2009.

ISTANBUL, March 29 (Xinhua) — Turkey’s Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz said Thursday that Turkey has no intention of threatening Syria with military action, though it is considering the establishment of a buffer zone inside Syria.

The Turkish official downplayed a recent visit by Land Forces Commander General Hayri Kivrikoglu to the Syrian border as “a routine inspection”.

Yilmaz made the statement during a visit to Sakarya province for a series of meetings with local officials.

“We have no thoughts or intentions of threatening Syria in any way. But we do want the democratic demands of the Syrian people to be met,” Yilmaz was quoted by local daily Today’s Zaman as saying.

Yilmaz also said the Turkish government was against any external intervention in Syria. “We want the Arab League to consider the demands of the Syrian people and make a decision for the countries of the region accordingly.”

A new Congressional report affirms that a potential US or Israeli strike on Iran would be useless since the Islamic Republic could recuperate from it within a six month time frame.

The report sparked by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s remarks claiming he “believes” Israel is “likely” to attack in Iran in either April, May or June, says although US and Israel aren’t certain of the precise location of the nuclear sites, the facilities may be spread out in a way that an attack would result in failure.

Bloomberg described the report stating it is “unclear what the ultimate effect of a strike would be on the likelihood of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.”

According to the Bloomberg report, last month a former US government official stated to researchers that “Iran’s centrifuge production is widely distributed and the number of workshops has probably multiplied ‘many times’ since 2005 because of an increase in Iranian contractors and subcontractors working on the program.”

This echoes Netanyahu’s and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s concern that sanctions against Iran are futile and an attack should be implemented before it’s too late.

The report states “an attack could have considerable regional and global security, political and economic repercussion, not least for the United States, Israel, and their bilateral relationship.”

In the 52 page document, it states that although President Obama and leaders of Congress have expressed their concerns about a nuclear armed Iran, the American people must have trust in the US intelligence assessments that “Iran has not made a decision to build nuclear weapons.”

The report also acknowledges that the aspects of detailed text are subject to “vigorous debate and remain fully or partially outside public knowledge.”

In page five of the report it states that “this uncertainty and ambiguity is a major feature of the environment in which international actors decided their policies and actions vis-à-vis Iran.”

I say to the “secular” pro-Hezbollah/Khameini/Assad hypocrites on SC:
Ask any atheist, secular or even moderately religious Iranian about the so called shia “liberalism”!

The (arab shia-alawite/western leftist) apologists for Khameini and co. always like to compare Iran with the worst Sunni country (i.e. Saudi Arabia). But Iranians themselves would never do that, since the cultures (i.e. Iranian Persian/Azeri vs. Arab Beduin) are so totally different!

– How many (if any) exile Saudis do you see in the West?
– And how many Iranians?

*I guess the first (=Saudi Arabs) are brainwashed and may really like their barbaric regime (like many Syrians seem to like theirs),

The town of Saraqeb in Idlib province has had serious armed violence by rebels. In the past few days the Syrian army has clashed with the rebels in Saraqeb and killed a number of rebels, and driven the armed men away from the town. As reported by SHAM FM today 80 men in Saraqeb surrendered to the authorities and professed themselves to be not directly responsible for any of the killings done by rebels, and therefore the authorities released them under the amnesty rules. http://www.facebook.com/lists/247693938657345
@ ANTOINE #93: I’m unaware of any basis for your forecasts. What’s your basis?

Expect things to cool down for a bit. Maybe 1 month. Do not forget that between early August and mid-October, it was similarly, all very quiet and Assad seemed to have the upper hand. While actually the opposition was regrouping and doing some major internal assessments.

Also expect the death toll to be relatively low (around 30) in the coming weeks [ compared with an average of 100 dead per day a few weeks ago].

However, expect the size and frequency of protests and demonstrations to rise, especially in Hama, Latakia, Halab, Raqqa ( i.e areas with less FSA activity).

However, those who think Assad has been able to re-establish control over Idleb is mistaken. He attacked Sarmin and Saraqeb and managed to drive out the FSA, but his forces did not occupy the towns and the residents and activists have returned already. the maximum he can do is to do sudden massive attacks on Idleb townsd, he cannot ( at this moment) occupy every town and vilage in Idleb with his troops. He is still unable to attack Binnish or Jabal Zawiya. And even in Homs City, the old city and northern suburbs 9 Khaldiya, Bayada, Qoussour, Deir baalbeh) is firmly under FSA control, in the Province, Rastan, Talbiseh, Houla and Qusayr are 100 % under FSA control.

Particularly damaging for the regime has been the loss of a large number of low-level informers and collaborators in Halab and Reef Halab. This has greatly reduced the security forces’ capabilities to make arrests.

However the middle classes of Halab are still strong and vocal in their opposition to the FSA.

The grand mufti in SA called for destruction of all churches in the Arabian peninsula !! What was the
White house response?what was the Vatican response?
The world will never be a better place as long as
Oil is coming befor principles.US and Europe will
Never be real democracies as long as the are doing Israeli -proxy policies .
What would the Moslem world response if the poppe calls for destructions of all the mosques
In Italy?how many Italian and Vatican embassies
Will be burned by Allah Akbarists:

Good to know that the British gov. is using the Brits money to support terrorism in Syria, funny how the article is trying to glorify the move while the comments under trashing the move as terrorists supporting.

Hague pledges £500,000 to Syria opposition

Britain will provide a further £500,000 to support Syria’s political
opposition in the face of president Bashar Assad’s regime, the Foreign
Secretary said.

William Hague is expected to announce the extra funding tonight during his annual speech at the Lord Mayor’s Easter Banquet.

Mr Hague said the money would help “hard-pressed” opposition groups to document the regime’s violations.

In his speech, he will set out that he has “agreed to provide a further half a million pounds of British support to Syria’s political opposition”.

“It includes agreement in principle for practical non-lethal support to them inside Syria,” Mr Hague said.

“It will help hard-pressed opposition groups and brave civil society organisations inside and outside the country to document the regime’s violations and gain the skills and resources they need to help build a democratic future for Syria.”

The Government has, over the last eight months, given £450,000 of practical support to the Syrian opposition, including media skills training to internal activists and advice to Syrian human rights defenders.

I am afraid that some of those who support Assad may position themselves to a point of no return. My grandmother told me once the story that after Hitler committed suicide the river near my hometown was filled with dead women and men who killed themselves. They thought a Germany without Hitler is unthinkable and the propaganda of the Third Reich did its most damage. But as a famous writer wrote after coming back to Germany in 1945, he wrote that he was not able to find one single nazi, all had been in opposition to this brutal regime.

Today was a relatively slow day in Syrian news, as can be see in the content of all the above comments today.

In what follows I repeat three points I’ve made before.

The government makes it its business to try to be in touch with the pulse of Syrian popular sentiment. It succeeds at that effort when the popular sentiment is pretty obvious. In policymaking the government is non-doctrinaire and is responsive to popular sentiment. Needless to say, this helps it politically and it’s one of the reasons why the government is popular after so many years of rule.

In Spring 2011 a political awakening happened to the Syrian Street that nobody saw coming. Nobody either inside or outside the government saw it coming. But once the government saw it, the government responded with a slew of serious political reforms. The reforms were subsequently accepted by mainstream Syrian society without any serious controversy or dispute over any of the particulars.

The absence of controversy over the particulars of the reforms is a good indicator to you of the government’s ability to sense what’s popularly wanted and what’s acceptable. To repeat, this government is politically astute. The government is very serious about being politically popular.

At the same time, however, it is correct to say that the government represents and acts on behalf of the Syrian society’s Establishment. The regime has partly created this Establishment and the Establishment has partly created the regime. The country is dominated by a sociologically broad Establishment that covers all geographic parts of the country, nearly all religious groups, all age groups, all professional occupations, all big private enterprises, and all components of the State.

It controls the trade unions, the mass media, the legal system, the education sector, the university departments, the religious endowments establishment, the private-sector civic organizations, and the municipal councils of every city, town and county in the country. Bashar Assad and the Assad government is the Establishment’s leadership. There is no sign or prospect of emergence of an alternative leadership within the Establishment.

For decades the Establishment has had essentially only one political party. Today it shows no inclination towards internal divisiveness such as would create two or more parties within the framework of one ruling Establishment (such as the Western countries have).

The Establishment is firmly unified against the rebellion; and no divisiveness within the Establishment could get political traction while the fight against the rebellion is still ongoing. Because the Establishment remains well unified and supports the Assad party, the upcoming parliamentary election campaign will consist of sundry semi-anonymous dissident parties and independent individuals campaigning against the Establishment’s party.

Accepting this perspective on the political landscape, one must expect the Establishment’s party to win by a very comfortable margin. I do not see how the overall society can vote in significant numbers for any anti-Establishment agenda. And in fact there isn’t any visible anti-Establshment agenda: the dissident agenda is the overthrow of the Establishment’s governing party, but without putting forth any agenda for what to replace it with.

In fact, most of the Syrian rebels are poorly-educated working-class people who have no ideas and no substantive agenda other than to howl at the Establishment. They draw some moral and political ideas from Islamic teachings, which they’ve gotten some education on, and they have some Islamist values like the poorly-educated working-classes who voted for Islamist parties in recent elections in Egypt and Tunisia.

But the Syrian rebels and dissidents on the whole are not putting forth an Islamist agenda, nor any other alternative policy agenda or substantive forward vision that throws the regime on the defensive in the upcoming election.

Iran has been Syria’s ally for the last 40 years and has investments in Syria while the UK has been imposing sanctions because of Syria supporting the resistance against Israel and has no investments whatsoever in Syria.
The UK pledges but will probably not send anything, until they know in which hands it will fall, and that is far from clear.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is mulling whether to boycott the Friends of Syria meeting on April 1 in Istanbul due to Turkey’s refusal to invite Greek Cyprus to the key meeting.

Syrian National Council may be ‘a principal representative’

Meanwhile, Turkey aims to raise the status of the Syrian National Council at the Friends of Syria meeting as “a principal representative” of the Syrian people, a Turkish official said, adding that efforts were still under way to reconcile the council and Kurdish groups.

“As the Syrian opposition agreed on a national pact in Istanbul, an important step has been taken in order to recognize the [council] as the principal representative of the people,” a Turkish official told the Daily News yesterday.

Participants at the Friends of Syria group’s meeting will discuss the issue on April 1, while Turkey will work on an agreement toward that goal, the official said.
(..)

“Iran will defend Syria because of (its) support of the resistance front against the Zionist regime and is strongly opposed to any interference by foreign forces in Syria’s internal affairs,” Khamenei told Erdogan. “The Islamic Republic of Iran is categorically opposed to any plan initiated by the U.S. regarding Syria.”

Khamenei rejected Turkey’s position that Assad must step down.

“We support reforms in Syria. The reforms that began in Syria need to continue,” state TV quoted Khamenei as saying.

It was not clear how Erdogan responded to Khamenei, but hours later he told Iran’s state TV that Assad’s regime can’t be trusted.

“If Assad doesn’t fear (an election), he should give a ballot box to the people and let parties take shape. (Assad’s) Baath should not form a party and must be regarded as a thing of the past,” Erdogan said. “We can’t put the previous years in front of us.”(..)

The Syrian opposition will refuse to deal with their killer; those who do so will be marginalized. As many Syrians observe the international community endorsing the Russian and Chinese position; as they realise that Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy are patent hypocrites; and as they witness outsiders, including Syrian exiles hostile to the Assad regime, manoeuvring without consulting them, they will become more frustrated and angry, and they will purchase weapons. There will be war, all because no one dares show Bashar Assad the exit.

The Annan plan will bring more violence
March 29, 2012 01:43 AM
By Michael Young
The Daily Star

Russia and China consider the Annan plan a formula for saving Bashar Assad, not getting rid of him. The most ridiculous claim in the past two weeks is that Moscow and Beijing have softened on Syria, and proved this by moving closer to the Americans and the Europeans in the Security Council, where they signed on to a presidential statement backing Annan’s mission.

The truth is that it’s the Obama administration and its European partners that have adopted the Russian and Chinese perspective. When President Barack Obama says that Assad will fall, that’s empty oratory destined to keep Syria at arm’s length during an election year, and avoid accusations that the US president is soft on mass murder …

The Russian calculation is that if Assad can begin negotiations with the opposition, he will prevail. The different opposition groups will be divided, with some endorsing talks and others rejecting them, permitting the Syrian regime to select its interlocutors. Those who say no to Annan’s offer, Moscow believes, will lose international legitimacy.

“UK has been imposing sanctions because of Syria supporting the resistance against Israel and has no investments whatsoever in Syria.”

What resistance exactly, please remind me the last time this administration or the one before it shot a single bullet to free the Golan?

Last I checked the Assads have done NOTHING to get back our land, so when I see them willing to liberate our land rather than kill its own people with the very weapons it is supposed to liberate it I will believe this whole resistance argument.

“This is fake country with a fake president and with a fake government and with a fake ideology and with a fake present and a dim and dark future destroyed by a pure mafiosi family”

That was pretty good. I will add this is a fake country with fake past too. One of the commenter said “Syria is one of a few MID EAST countries where majority and minority live in peace. ” referring to the past. Wrong! Very very wrong!

The fact of the matter is that majority and minority did not live in peace. 0r perhaps lived in a fake peace. For the last 40 some years, the majority was brutally oppressed by the minority that enforced a fake peace by building a seemingly un-destroyable steel wall of fear.

Hardline Sunni Muslims in Lebanon are maneuvering for influence over Syrians across the border who have spent the last year fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad.

“At first Syrians called on the West and NATO. Now they are calling on God,” said Zahed, sitting in his library, where black Islamic flags hang on the walls.

As opposition groups abroad squabble over politics and Assad’s army pounds rebellious cities, Muslim hardliners want to make religion the unifying basis of the revolt.

Radical Islamist elements are still on the fringe, but that’s enough to make a headache for opposition activists who are struggling to convince Syrian minorities to support a revolt led mostly by the country’s Sunni majority.

Foreign powers joining exile opposition leaders at a “Friends of Syria” meeting in Istanbul this week will also want proof of whom exactly they are making friends with, if they are ever to consider arming rebel forces.

“We don’t want to accidentally wind up supporting extremist groups,” said Joseph Holliday, of the Institute for the Study of War, in Washington. “The fundamental question is: What happens in the future? And does our involvement make this turn better or worse?”

Some activists are already uneasy about a series of car bombs that hit Syria’s two main cities. An unknown group called Al-Nusra Front claimed the attacks on a website that posts messages from many al Qaeda branches.

“There is a growing radical presence inside Syria and I think they were behind the bombings. I’m afraid controlling them could be a losing battle,” said an activist. He asked not to be named for fear of angering fellow opposition members, who are reluctant to discuss potential radical infiltration.

STEREOTYPED BY BEARDS

Zahed, a Lebanese sheikh with a long beard and a leather jacket over his blue robe, sits in front of shelves of gold embossed religious books. He offers the Islamic flags that hang behind him to people who join anti-Assad protests in his hometown of Tripoli.

“At first no one raised anything other than the Syrian flag. Now some are raising the Islamic flag,” Zahed said.

Assad has long raised the specter of Islamic extremism and says “terrorists” are behind Syria’s bloody uprising.
(..)

Yeah the Great “RESISTANCE” – paid by the blood of 100 000s of Arabs, Iranians and Kurds, ruled by Great Anti Zionist-Imperialist Moslem Leaders such as Assad I, Assad II, Saddam, Khomeini and Khameini – has indeed been very succesfull:

Gaza is Free, Golan is Free, West Bank is Free
–> All Palestine is free! Israel in the Sea!

As usual, a very good summary and analysis of what’s going on inside Syria and the Establishments away from the media endless ‘propaganda’.

In your last paragraph you point out a worth thinking about point: “But the Syrian rebels and dissidents on the whole are not putting forth an Islamist agenda, nor any other alternative policy agenda or substantive forward vision that throws the regime on the defensive in the upcoming election.”

I think we didn’t see the religious agenda so obvious in the political sphere because after a year of bloody struggle there is no unifying AGENDA whatsoever, unless you call ‘isqa6 alnizam’ an agenda.

While in Tunisia, Egypt and even Yemen the political Islam is already established way before the revolution, unlike Syria and for the Syrian opposition to start a proper political agenda they need to be mature enough each in their own parties and not as we are seeing the failed tries to box them in one ‘council’ and one ‘opposition’ group, that will never build any of them an agenda or to make them mature enough to understand the average Syrian needs and move forward, all this mish mash coalitions and meeting are waste of time, unless each of those opposition groups form somekind of political party with a clear rules and agenda things will stay in the hands of the Syrian state.

This flaw and weakness of the dissidents is what driving many toward begging with the most humiliating was for a military intervention since they know that they actually have nothing at all to offer to any Syrian living in the country.

On the other hand, at the ground and away from politics, the terrorist radicals have nothing else but religion and sectarianism similar to Alqaeda to attract the uneducated soldiers they need for their terrorist mission, this is why you see the radical religious message is dominating the armed militia groups.

Just hosting and supporting Hamas that no “courageous” Arab country wants to host and giving the Palestinians refugees in Syria a status that no other Arab country gave them are enough to have all Palestinians leaders hailing Bashar Al Assad for his support to the Resistance. These leaders are better placed than you to know who supports them and who just talk.

Against the will of crazy neo-con Young, It seems that SNC and the opposition groups are giving signs that they will accept to negotiate on only ONE condition, not with Bashar, which is a very good step forward in my opinion, at least they start to see some reality:

It’s interesting that the failures of every creepy Arab state and leadership in doing anything to Palestine, Lebanon and Jolan Syria, is now blamed on Bashar and Syria and the resistance is the bad thing while non of those attacking Syria resistance policies and stands with Palestinians and Lebanese didn’t even bother to mention Palestine Land Day and they are preaching all of us about ‘resistance’….how sad!

I agree with JAD #130. I agree the dissidents have no unifying agenda, and I agree that “weakness of the dissidents is what driving many toward begging with the most humiliating way for a military intervention since they know that they actually have nothing at all to offer to any Syrian living in the country.” I agree that Isqat Al-Nizam is not an agenda for the people living in the country.

On the other hand, I believe JAD is overstating the reality when he says “the radical religious message is dominating the armed militia groups.” Based on what I see (and my main source is Youtube), I believe instead that the dominant sentiment among the armed militia groups is just anger and uncouth frustration and “howling at the Establishment”, without a lot of Islamist values driving it. I think Nir Rosen gets this mostly right in his long article entitled “Islamism in the Syrian Uprising” at http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/03/08/islamism_and_the_syrian_uprising . The following is from a shorter article by Nir Rosen which I believe is about right:

“The Salafi and Muslim Brotherhood ideologies are not important in Syria and do not play a significant role in the revolution. But most Syrian Sunnis taking part in the uprising are themselves devout. They do not read religious literature or listen to sermons. Their views on Islam are consistent with the general attitudes of Syrian Sunni society, which is conservative and religious. All the fighters I met – in the provinces of Homs, Idlib, Hama, Deraa and the Damascus suburbs – were Sunni Muslims, and most were pious. Many fighters were not religious before the uprising, but now pray and are inspired by Islam, which gives them a creed and a discourse. They are not fighting for Islam but they are inspired by it. Some drink alcohol, which is forbidden in Islam, and do not pray. And their brothers in arms do not force them to pray. Some fighters are also influenced by a general sense of Sunni identity, but others do not care about this. I encountered one armed Salafi group in Idlib. Some fighters are the sons or nephews of people who were jailed during the 1980s for alleged membership of the Muslim Brotherhood.” http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/02/201221315020166516.html

“The fact of the matter is that majority and minority did not live in peace.”

I beg to differ on this,

Both Damascus and Aleppo boast a rich history of tolerance (with rather dark periods) but in large both these cities have always had multi religious groups that coexisted peacefully.

Take for example Damascus with Haret El Yahood and Bab Tuma, or the fact that a relic of John the Baptist is buried in Ummayad mosque. These cultures existed in Damascus before the muslim culture came to being, and the fact that you still see evidence that these cultures can survive (no matter how small) and continue to live in Damascus is a testament of Syrian coexistence.

I met a Syrian Jewish family in Damascus awhile back, they told me that during Hanukkah Syrian Jews light an extra candle as a gratitude to the acceptance they received from their city folk. I asked if this was a new or old tradition the grand mother told me it was older than her, and that her family in Aleppo did the same.

We have many dark parts to our history that we should learn from, but we should not forget the good parts along the way.

Supporting a resistance by proxy does not equal to getting the job done. And last I checked neither Hamas nor Hizballah have fought to free the Golan Heights, so this proxy resistance is doing NOTHING to free the Golan.

The only thing Assad and his father ever resisted is their peoples free will, for that is the only thing that scares them, and they will do everything in their power to quell it. As evident in Havez’s levelling of Hama and Besho’s mobile killing machine.

I am not discussing the issue at a personals level. I am discussing it at the masses level. If you venture to say that Iraqi Sunni and Iraqi Shia lived in peace and harmony during Saddam or now the Bahraini Shiaa living in peace and harmony under the rule of the Sunni minority in Bahrain, I would retract.

Kofi Annan snubs Iran? Is it because he shares bush bush’s distaste of the Burqa? Don’t Mrs. Ahmadinejad and Mrs. Mulla Khamenei wear them? What do Iranian women wear in their weddings? Red or white Burqas? With or without heels? What about the men? Do they wear suits without the tie? Do men buy women lots of jewelry like what we do in the Arab ME? I really want to know.

BEIRUT, March 29 (Reuters) – Syria’s armed opposition announced on Thursday a local command structure that aims to bring together disparate rebel groups inside the country under the command of defected officers exiled in neighbouring Turkey.

“We declare the formation of the joint command of the Free Syrian Army in Syria to be coordinated with the leadership of the Free Syrian Army outside (the country),” a Paris-based spokesman for the Supreme Rebel Military Council, Fahad al-Masri, said in a statement.

The move, which names five colonels in the flashpoint provinces of Homs, Hama, Idlib, Deir al-Zor and Damascus, was the latest in a string of attempts to unify armed opposition groups who have been fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

The head of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA), Riad al-Asaad, said on Saturday a military council grouping exiled rebel chiefs, including Syria’s most senior army deserter, General Mustafa al-Sheikh, had been formed.

Sheikh is the chairman of the council and Asaad is in charge of military operations.

Free Syrian Army officer Major Maher Ismail al-Naimi told Reuters that the new structure would be implemented immediately. “The Free Syrian Army is involved,” he said by telephone.

The list includes a colonel named Qasim Saad al-Din from Homs, a focus of the armed revolt, who defected in February, and Colonel Khaled al-Haboush, who would direct military operations in the capital.
(,,,,)

Your comments are really strange, first you quote Abrams who is known for being the Iraq war promoter, are you going to be happy if Syria got occupied? Seriously, there is a big difference of being anti-regime and anti-Syria.

Then you are discrediting the resistance as if this idea is the ownership of Assad, or as if part of our homelands are not occupied you and others should know that hating the regime doesn’t mean letting our real enemies to take over our land and because of our disagreement with the regime we should side with them against our brothers and sisters, that is completely wrong and nobody is preaching about the resistance so we need not to react in the wrong way jakara bial6uara…

I quoted Abrams as a rebuttal to Ignatius, and told you that in that ARTICLE I agree with him, that does not mean I agree with all of his writing.

Realpolitik is a Machiavellian way of doing politics, and history has shown us that it does not work, it just further empowers the dictators. Just look at the appeasement and realpolitik that Chamberlain tried with Hitler, did it ever stop Hitler for murdering 11 million people, and invading half of Europe?

I am discrediting the resistance when it comes to the Assad family, for they have never done anything remotely close to bringing back our occupied lands.

I would agree with you 6 months ago, which the time Nir was inside Syria, today every clip/image we watch/see is showing some armed men with long beard and shaved head as the ‘leaders’ of any attack recorded and they are using religious in their messages.

Did you check the clip I post about Katibet Alansar? This is the first local born ‘alqaeda-like’ brigade i come across since the beginning of the uprising, which is a very alarming sign that instead of importing alqaeda the armed militia are making their own version of it.

That’s cost the Americans large number of casualities, if mistake repeated with Syria this time will cost the Syrians large number of innocents.

obviously, this time the USA doesn’t care, let the Syrians kill each others.

it is clear that Syria is/was a game, play, victim of superpower imbalance. it is clear that none of the crying wolves care about Syria or the Syrian people it is a joke to believe that democracy is the goal here.

Kilo interview with Assafir, explains exactly what is going on with Syria now.
here it is

I never meant what I wrote to be interpreted as an excuse for a minority to rule a majority, that was not my sentiment at all.

I am just trying to point out when it comes to Syria and its rich and deep history which supersedes any borders that have been drawn up recently does enjoy a level of tolerance that other parts of the ME region did not enjoy.

What I wrote about Damascus and Aleppo might be an anomaly compared to other cities that have a long history of sectarian strife (As in Latakia between the Sunni and Alawis for instance), that does not mean that tolerance and coexistence never flourished in our cities.

It was a unilateral tolerance. Sunnis coexisted with “minorities” while a great majority of those minorities harbored hatred, غل وحقد. No human is capable of what those called shabeehas (our neighbors next door) did. Literally cutting the face of children is not something a human can do unless he harbors an extraordinary amount of hatred. A direct product of lack of genuine coexistence, peace, and harmony on their part.

It is like Cinderella living in fake peace and harmony with her two step sisters to be subtle…

Jad
Syrians has been the smartests in the Arab world.The education system in Syria has produced many many quality smart professionals all over
The world.
What the current Islamic movement in Syria is doing is total destruction of many students life and education at all levels.when the fire is off,and Syria
Is turned into ashes,If Bashat or Ammar or Hassan
Is in the presidential palace it doesn’t matter.when
Your child education and future is destroyed you could care less about freedom or democracy.
Syrian MB revolution is teaching kids to say :
لا دراسه ولا دوام لحين إسقاط النظام
Gues what by then you dont have to study my son
You will be graduate as حمار حر ديمقراطي

Ghalioun said he will support Kofi Annan plan, This disappoint the Assad mafia regime, they thought the opposition will refuse,

Lavrov comment is very strange , no one would expect foreign minister of Russia to say such statement,the majority of Syrian has the right in a democratic system to choose what they want, however the minority rights has to be respected, The Arab countries has to respond,Lavrov should apologize.

The Arab League, is headed by Iraq, whose president is Kurd and Foreign minister is Kurd, I say Arab is another name for middle East people, The Kurds and Arab are one people.

Other than this I believe that Arab League meeting has failed, The leader of KSA Egypt Syria were not there, they did not talk about Arab unity, and the best thing is that Qatar HBJ is now the spirit and heart of the Arab, He stands tall, while Bashar now is half man, or much shorter, He proved to be a murderer and a lier, he said today Syria is cooperating with Annan, he is a pathological lier, Erdogan sent a warning to Tehran.

Hate and distrust is evident on both sides, and its main cause is ignorance.

Living in the west I developed a thick skin when it comes to my religion, but one thing I never realized is how much more it hurts when a fellow Syrian calls me a terrorist sympathizer, 3ar3ouri, Israeli agent, mundass… all because I want Bashar gone. They evoke the extremist ideology of certain sects of Islam and how bad it is, while hypocritically endorse another extremist ideology and fail to see its damages.

Or the excuses to allow the slaughtering and constant annihilation of Syrians for fear of the Salafi boogyman with his beard who dares to say Allah u Akbar, while praising a bearded militia that has the arrogance to call itself the Party of God, and is led by a maniac that is willing to hold all of Lebanon hostage for the sake of his version of the resistance (Christians and Sunni Lebanese be damned).

If as you say the majority of the minorities hate us and carry غل وحقد against us, then we should embrace the minority of the minority rather than shun them away. Most of the minorities I know personally are on the pro revolution side, writing in their real names, in Syria what they think of the regime, that is a lot more than what I dare to do.

It is Syrians killing Syrians, Sunni killing Sunni, Alawi killing Alawi… this regime is not made of one sect, and not all the Shabeha are Alawi (I know a halabi Sunni that is a proud shabeeh).

Jad
Omer Altalawi,Khaled Abosalah ,Abo jaafar and Danny are all exposed as criminal,terrorists liars.
They have killed so many kidnapped innocent
Civilians.Dany was welcomed at the European
Parliament!!

Alan,
Sorry, economics is Chinese to me. After reading more, I understood that Australia has not dropped the Commonwealth to become a Brics member. It simple have bilateral trade with the Brics country in the requested currency.

Jad,
UK “non-lethal” help, that means satellite phones, web cameras and computers, no? So we’ll see thousands more videos, some of them shot at night, of new militias. Luckily some of them sound really phoney, just about making 5 bucks for the show and going back to sleep (cf the Deir al Zur clip). It helps the West to list all these guys who don’t use FB Google and Twitter.

What resistance exactly, please remind me the last time this administration or the one before it shot a single bullet to free the Golan?

———
This is a common question on most opposition facebooks and it’s rather very lame and cheap argument.
Last administration went to battle with Israel and regretful consequences were due to Sadatte and Hussein of Jordan betrayal and those are facts in history. If you wish to rewrite or deviate history, it’s possible but references are in International Libraries worldwide.
The current administration didn’t go to war because Israel advanced technology and equipment capabilities are known. For any battle be it commercial or military SWOT analysis are done and if the outcome is not feasible then NO go. For instance, if Hardee’s decides to go on market share and price war with McDonalds, we all know McDonald’s capabilities so both are going to exhaust their resources to no end until both go back to their old positions. Thus, why begin in the first place. Not all wars are winnable, even Prophet Muhamad lost certain battles. Going to battle just for the sake of it sounds like Saddam invading Kuwait ..needless to elaborate..how smart was that?? Current administration chose to spare soldiers lives in unknown outcomes with war against Israel (e.g.: Saddam was in battle with Iran for many years I don’t even know who won at the end). Jonathan Kozol says : “Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win” . Meanings if it’s might for right then fight your battle but make sure you win. Finally, for those who believe that the Golan would be back be it old, current, new administration are dreaming in colors. There are serious joint ventures with multinational corporations in Golan no peace plan will bring it back in form of land, only financial compensation. Thus, the subject is clos.

With 9,000 Syrians dead and the Assad regime increasingly isolated and under political, moral, military assault, it appears that the Obama Administration has made its choice: it is abandoning efforts to force the end of that regime.

The plan developed by Kofi Annan is a life-saving development for Assad,

hate to say it but even neocons can be eloquent.

but, really, if you look back, activists have been saying the same thing: kofi has been acting to prop up the regime.

looks like obama is more interested in getting a deal out of iran. he’s more interested in self aggrandizing legacy-making rather than preventing wholesale slaughter. makes me effing sick.

“It was a unilateral tolerance. Sunnis coexisted with “minorities” while a great majority of those minorities harbored hatred, غل وحقد. No human is capable of what those called shabeehas (our neighbors next door) did. Literally cutting the face of children is not something a human can do unless he harbors an extraordinary amount of hatred. A direct product of lack of genuine coexistence, peace, and harmony on their part”

Absolutely correct, TARA. They hate us becz we are Muslims, becz we believe in Allah, MUahmmad, and the Caliphs. WE will fight them physically and crush them physically. WE will keep on fighting . They will have to accept There is no God but Allah, Muhammad is His Messenger. and Abu Bakr is the First Caliph.

WE are the sons of Omar and Khalid bin Walid, go back to Byzantine bloody Ropmans and Pheonicians, we are descendants of proud Umayyad Arabs and Ottomans, **** your culture and your nation. WE are Arabs and Turkmen, we are your nemesis, bloody Byzantines.

In the 90′, he told us we will never be independent and USA will never allow Yugoslavia to split. It was an ultimatum, but we did it anyway. Not even USA can stop you, if you want something.

Were we right or wrong, were we foolish or not, it’s harder to say now than before. Nationalism and religion can destroy any country…foolish nationalistic Serbians politicians started it all in Yugoslavia.

No. No. And no. You are absolutely wrong. Allah should not be injected in the middle. It has nothing to do with Allah and “we are not going to fight them to believe in .. Abu Bakr”. The vast majority of us, and I personally, couldn’t care less of believing in a dead man.

Sorry, I mean no disrespect. You keep jumping in to spoil any meaningful discussion. You’re jumping in trying to portray this as a holly war (again to discredit the revolution) is a blatant attempt to prevent me from expressing my thoughts by derailing the discussion. Pointing to past “fake coexistence” and other society-ills is important If we are looking to have a future real non-fake country.

TARA
re:”khalid tlass
see what supporting these thugs does! we give them aid we give them weapons. they only want the nation to believe in their allah!
the west does not know what it is doing is allowing islam to grow. our grandkids will look back at history and say how could mr obama have let this happen!
and please dont beleive everything u see. those who demonstrate in peace dont waste time distorting videos and making them something else. thanks to technology we have a way to fake anything. even cover magazines have been caught our!
yes syrians have lived in peace with the asaads in power. we may noy like certain ways but it has been the most peaceful for the people why else would over 2million refugees seek refuge in syria? because it had peace!

173. MINA
I will tell you more! who has more alternative economic options, that and will appear on the right track! Americans for certain understand inevitability of an exit of other Currencies (type North American Amero)! everything is natural!

This is exactly the type of army that will get swallowed up by the desert in the future. Those aware of the end time prophecy about the army coming out of Shaam (Syria) will know what I’m talking about.

If this regime survives. Expect it to send an army to attack Imam Mahdi (as) in Mecca sometime in the future. Some predict this is 20+ years away.

Whatever the matter, one day they will get their cummuppance. The sooner the better.

Edit: I hadn’t read the recent comments (before this one) when writing this.

I will very shortly be paying a $ 50,000/year college tuition/room&board for my son’s college education. Suppose that my son takes a class on Syria and the Middle East, and the professor propagates that Hamza al-Khateeb, who was tortured by Bashar’s security/shabiha, was “actually” killed by “Saudi terrorists!” Do you think that I should ask the university for a refund? I believe in professor’s freedom of speech, but that does not mean that I should pay for conspiracy theories!! If this hypothetical situation materialized, my lawyer would be suing the university for a refund!
I truly feel so sorry for students who would be in the class of the person who claim that Hamza al-Khateeb was killed by Saudi terrorists!

Hating Erdogan becasue of the Armenian issue, and despising Saudi Arabia/Qatar for any reason are irrelevant to why Anan’s peace plan will fail. Erdogan isn’t the reason why Anan’s plan will fail. It’s because Bashar is stalling and thinking, as Professor Landis told the NYT yesterday, that he is “in the mopping up stage.” He isn’t and the courageous Syrian revolution will not be “mopped up” until Bashar is really mopped up! I know that Professor Landis does not believe that that the revolution is over. He was just explaining what the dictator actually thinks.

PARIS: Fadwa Suleiman, an actress who became an icon of Syria’s revolution, is furious that her country’s peaceful protest movement has been drawn into armed conflict with the regime.

She said she is saddened to see that “the revolution is not going in the right direction, that it is becoming armed, that the opposition which wanted to resist peacefully is playing the game of the regime and that the country is heading for sectarian war”.

Her bitter assessment comes as she sits in a cafe in Paris, where she fled to last week after escaping from Syria.

“I didn’t want to leave Syria but I didn’t have the choice. I was being threatened and I was becoming a threat for the activists who were helping me,” she said wearily.

Suleiman became a high-profile member of the opposition movement last November when she appeared in footage from the rebel city of Homs that was broadcast on the Al-Jazeera television news network.

(Reuters) – Iran is helping its ally Syria defy Western sanctions by providing a vessel to ship Syrian oil to a state-run company in China, potentially giving the government of President Bashar al-Assad a financial boost worth an estimated $80 million.

Iran, itself a target of Western sanctions, is among Syria’s closest allies and has promised to do all it can to support Assad, recently praising his handling of the year-long uprising against Assad in which thousands have been killed.

China has also shielded Assad from foreign intervention, vetoing two Western-backed resolutions at the United Nations over the bloodshed, and is not bound by Western sanctions against Syria, its oil sector and state oil firm Sytrol.

That’s even more to the credit of Bashar al Assad. He consistently refused a peace deal that would give him back the Golan and leave the rest of the Palestinian land occupied. Sadat just did that with the Sinai, Bashar did not.
You are just selfishly focusing on the Golan. The Resistance is much larger than that and Bashar has shown more solidarity with the Palestinians than any Arab country.

Syria’s Assad Targets Children for Detention and Torture
Posted by: The Editors, March 29, 2012

It’s almost unbelievable, a government targeting children in an attempt to repress popular uprisings.

The latest reports from the BBC that Syrian children are being targeted for detention and torture are shocking but coincide with evidence Amnesty researchers uncovered in a recent mission to the region.

According to UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay, these actions against children seem “systematic and targeted” and are being carried out by Assad’s security forces:

“They’ve gone for the children, for whatever purpose, in large numbers – hundreds detained and tortured.

I’ve seen some of the evidence…It’s just horrendous: children shot in the knees, held together with adults in really inhumane conditions – denied medical treatment for their injuries, either held as hostages or held as sources of information – or just the sheer brutality of this whole clampdown.”

Amnesty researchers documented torture of children in Syria in “‘I wanted to die’: Syria’s torture survivors speak out,” published earlier this month, and “Deadly Detention,” an August 2011 report that documented 10 victims under the age of 18 who had died in custody in Syria (out of 88 total cases).

MOSCOW, March 30 (Itar-Tass) — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev urged the summit of the League of Arab States (LAS) in Baghdad to promote a dialogue between the government and opposition in Syria and to prevent any outside interference.

“We call on summit participants to join efforts and promote an early end to the bloodshed in Syria. It is important to find a settlement option which is acceptable for all and launch a dialogue between Syrian authorities and the opposition with unconditional compliance with the norms of the international law and without foreign interference,” Medvedev said in a message of greetings to the summit on Thursday.

The holding of the summit in Baghdad “is a clear confirmation that the Republic of Iraq has regained its place and worthy status of one of the founders of the League and again plays an important role in Arab affairs.”

LAS has been traditionally working to enhance collective and legal efforts and form a just world order. The current summit is taking place on the background of “ongoing difficult and dramatic developments in the region which call for an increased role of the League in the search for political and diplomatic ways to settle crisis situations,” Medvedev said.

The president said ‘relations between Russia and Arab countries are based on deep historic traditions of friendship and mutual understanding.” The latest changes in the region call for closer cooperation. We have numerously stated that Russia supports the drive of Arab countries towards better life and wider social and economic rights,” he stressed.

“We are convinced the tasks faced by the countries of the Middle East and North Africa shall be accomplished in the constitutional field and through national dialogue. It is specifically important to prevent violence in the region,” Medvedev added.

The latest developments in the Middle East and North Africa should not distract attention from the acutest problem of the region – comprehensive and just settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict. “Russia resolutely stands for an early resumption of direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations on all issues of the final status on a solid international legal basis,” the Russian president said.

He reiterated the Russian intention to join efforts with Arab countries in promoting the Russian concept of collective security in the Gulf. “Increased all-round cooperation with LAS countries remains our foreign policy priority. I am convinced that strengthened Russian-Arab relations meet common interests and serve the cause of peace and sustainable development of our countries and peoples,” Medvedev said.

from Hafez Al-Assad: Never forget this one point: There is no such thing as a Palestinian People, there is no Palestinian entity, there is only Syria. You are an integral part of the Syrian people, Palestine is an integral part of Syria. Therefore it is we, the Syrian authorities, who are the true representatives of the Palestinian people.”

the regime can’t claim to be an advocate for palestinians when they don’t even recognize the people, their land or their right to exist.

Any of the pro-aroor gangs here planning to take
His kids a vacation to Syria any time soon?How
Safe your kids will feel?are you going to ask for the protection of الفاروق or المعتز بالله or كتيبة حمد بن جاسم….What about if you are one of the 1/100000
Minorities who are pro-revolution ?make sure you take enough cash with you to give for the kidnappers of your kids.
You know what just don’t go and say :
I was stupid for supporting terrorists .Take your kids to Spain and tell them this was arabic country
Built by Tariq bin Ziad.

Your sectarian hatred for anyone that is not like yourself is rather disgusting and utterly bigoted, your inhuman and extremely nasty remarks about dead Syrians needing to be “cleanup and disinfected” show the level of morality that you have (or lack thereof).

Humanitarian wars are a modern form of imperialism. The standard pattern that the United States and its allies use to execute them is one where genocide and ethnic cleansing are alleged by a coalition of governments, media organizations, and non-governmental front organizations which are preceded by sanctions, isolation, and military intervention. This is the post-Cold War modus operandi of the United States and NATO.

In its execution, the United Nations has been party due to the hijacking of its posts and offices by Washington. Now Kofi Annan has been appointed with a mediating role in Syria, but his position on R2P should not be overlooked. Nor should the fact that the U.S. and its allies are not interested in a mediated peace be overlooked either.(….)….

Irritated said
“and Bashar has shown more solidarity with the Palestinians than any Arab country.”
Bashar has done nothing to help the palastinians, infact he said,he supports dropping the right of return to the palastinians

He needs the Syrian regime as much as the Syrian regime needs him. Al Maliki is fearful that a regime change in Damascus would embolden his Sunni opponents, who have openly expressed their support for the protest movement in Syria. Following the withdrawal of US troops last December, sectarian tension ran high in Iraq with sectarian-based secession tendencies reaching a tipping point. Al Maliki is already having trouble with his coalition partners who want to replace him or go for early elections.
….
He believes that Syria could help neutralise some of his opponents. But that cannot come without a price. Having been strangled by Arab and European economic sanctions, Syria needs an economic partner that can cancel out the disastrous effects of the sanctions. An implicit quid pro quo agreement has hence been reached. According to this agreement, Iraq would extend an economic lifeline for Damascus in return for continued Syrian support for his rule.

There are already reports that Syria has turned in some of the former Iraqi regime’s officials who had taken refuge in the country following the collapse of the Saddam Hussain regime. Al Maliki has for years been asking for their extradition but to no avail. Others have been asked to leave.

The anti-Al Maliki TV station, Al Raai, which has been airing from a location nearby Damascus, has also been shut down. Last summer, Syria denied western reports that it had received billions of dollars in aid from the Al Maliki government to support its waning economy.
Regardless of the authenticity of these reports, the Syrian daily, Al Watan, reported that Syrian exports to Iraq exceeded $20 million daily in December 2011, meaning that Iraq is taking the lion’s share of Syria’s overall industrial products.
(..)

The Conflict in Syria
by NASEER ARURI
{…}
Thus, the ongoing crises in Syria, designed to marginalize the Assad regime, under the pretext of human rights, would represent an attempt to settle previous accounts: Syria’s close ally, Hezbollah would not be allowed to get away with an apparent military victory over Israel in 2006; Syria would not go unpunished for its alleged role in the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister, the late Rafiq Hariri; nor will Syria’s “coalition” remain exempt from the consequences that usually come with the counter revolutionary restraint presumably inherent in Rice’s “new Middle East” formula, particularly in the aftermath of the seemingly successful revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia. These revolutions cannot run loose in a Middle East that is steadily becoming an American lake.

How long will the lake remain to serve the interests of colonial powers in an age of de-colonization will depend on the dwindling economies of the Anglo-Saxon world, which may face difficulties in trying to sustain a neo-colonialist order in the Middle East. It may also depend on the continuing readiness of NATO to support counter-revolutionary forces ala Libya, the enduring ability of America’s surrogates, such as Saudi Arabia, Israel, Qatar .etc to escape the revolutionary tide in the Arab world and the rising expectations of a new public whose willingness to sacrifice for a democratic polity has proven to be boundless. A western lake and an Arab spring simply cannot co-exist.
{…}http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/03/29/the-conflict-in-syria/

“from Hafez Al-Assad: Never forget this one point: There is no such thing as a Palestinian People, there is no Palestinian entity, there is only Syria. You are an integral part of the Syrian people, Palestine is an integral part of Syria. Therefore it is we, the Syrian authorities, who are the true representatives of the Palestinian people.”
the regime can’t claim to be an advocate for palestinians when they don’t even recognize the people, their land or their right to exist”
=======
Historically Speaking Hafez Al-Assad is right.
Geographically,Syria–Lebanon-Canaan(palestine)-Jordan were part of
Bilad Al Sham region

I share your bafflement as to what stake or allegiances in Syria some of the commentators here have.

(Note: This is not about those afraid of change in Syria, those with vested interests, or those with stubborn allegiences, which commentators like Sheila and others have been discussing.)

I am referring to those here who show a chilling lack of awareness or interest in the real situation faced by the real people of Syria.

These commentators instead put all their energy into obsessive ideological drum beating against the west, using Syria as an occasional backdrop. Why? For what purpose?

To them it seems anybody in Syria who gets in the firing line, prisons or torture chambers of the Assad regime is just too stupid, al-qaedish or western-manipulated to even bother thinking about.

In fact,I sometimes get the impression these commentators see Syrians like the regime does – i.e. expendible, irrelevant and deserving to be squashed like vermin.

What strange ideology, moral code and world view drives them to yawn at the horror of a dictator prepared to smash up the country and its citizens to stay in power?

To think that it’s nothing for a country to have 60% of its economy controlled by the dictator’s cousin, while a very large percentage of the population lives in crushing poverty?. To have people living in fear of the mukhrabat, exhausted by corruption, insulted by idiotic propaganda. Living without rule of law, without economic opportunity or any say in the running of their own country.

No, that’s ignored or dismissed.

You ask what approach they will take in dialogue and actions in post-Assad Syria.

Forget it, they will have moved on and forgotten all about it. Syria is not on their radar screen except as an opportunity to express their biases against the west.

On March 20 last year, an intelligence officer in Damascus rounded up a group of teenagers from Daraa and told them: “You disrespected the president, but he has decided to pardon you.” The boys were surprised. They had been held by the authorities for more than a month and Bashir Abazid, who was just 15 at the time, almost refused to believe what he was hearing, because every time the boys had been told they were being released, they had been transferred to yet another intelligence branch.

“It will help hard-pressed opposition groups and brave civil society organizations inside and outside the country [ u-tube and facebook 😀 ] to document the regime’s violations and gain the skills and resources they need to help build a democratic future for Syria,” Hague explained.

But questions are being raised over who exactly will receive the money, as the opposition within Syria is fractured. How this money will be used and who is to control the way it is spent also remains somewhat murky.

President Assad has been repeatedly telling other countries to stop sponsoring the opposition. Failing to respect this principle could therefore put the implementation of the six-point plan put forward by Kofi Annan at risk.

And with a looming tanker-driver strike fueling panic at Britain’s gas stations, providing funds to a splintered rebel group doesn’t seem to be right move for the public.

Western aid undermines the ceasefire plan worked out by the UN, Infowars.com analyst and editor Patrick Henningsen told RT. Henningsen also says it could make Bashar al-Assad pull out of the talks, as the Syrian president has demanded that any kind of support to the opposition be stopped immediately.

“President Assad is not going to accept the Kofi Annan’s peace plan as the Western countries are still giving aid to the opposition. Qatar has already been caught through proxy smuggling arms over the border in Jordan. Also there are arms going over the border with Lebanon. These are coming from the US, the UK and their allies in the region,”

(…)
“Given the central roles of Palestine and the right of return in Syrian policy, it should come as no surprise to the reader that Palestinians living in Syria are treated as equal to their Syrian counterparts.”
(…)

I dont know if you find the kind of supporters of the regime we have here, where you live. I have probably learned more bad arabic words in this year by going to anti regime protests than ever before. Not the obvious youngsters, older men in their late 50s sended obscene gestures, marked with the top ten of arabic curse words. The typical Assad loyalist who will still grab to the posters and t-shirts handed out by embassy staff consists of some syrians ( not the majority though) and lebanese hisbollah activists and to my astonishment even Ahbash followers were among those who protested for Assad. I am really happy that those folks dont have a word here, just on facebook and youtube they try to impress me by their simple logic.

Oops, was that in a Pro-revolution demo in Germany!
I guess there they prefer sectarian language, for me I prefer coarse language anytime than any of what those protesters in Germany are saying:
ويا قرداحة جني جني………………..رح يحكمك واحد سني….).http://youtu.be/HnEapiSz3uk

If anybody wants to learn bad words you can go to London to hear it:
المعارضين السوريون في لندن … واخلاقهم النجسةhttp://youtu.be/yAKCs71TmJ0

I am a truthful and honest person to the core, I write what I believe, I am not asking you to believe it.

Btw Abu Bakr is indeed a dead man, but he must be respected. Tara, you must realize 90 % of Syrian Sunnis are extremely orthodox religious and no0thing will change that. We do not underatand concepts of nations and nationalis. We rather identify with Turkmen and Arabs rather than Queen Zenobia or Elagablaus or some other horse shit.

Abu Rami’s last foray into war wasn’t much of a success. Just after his unit had crossed over the border, one of his men lost his wits. The young man cowered in the undergrowth, trembled and didn’t budge. Out of necessity, the whole unit had to come to a stop: Ten Lebanese, armed with 10 Kalashnikovs loaded with 65 magazines of ammunition, had come to a standstill inside the Syrian border, without any backup.
{…}
Abu Rami is a commander in the growing band of volunteer Lebanese fighters who are getting involved in the conflict in neighboring Syria. Most come from Tripoli, the northern Lebanese city that is largely home to a Sunni Muslim population. Their hatred of the Assad regime is rooted in the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, which only ended in 2005.
{…}
‘We Lebanese Are Part of the Syrian Revolution’

Radicals among Lebanon’s Sunnis view the insurgency in their neighboring country as a welcome opportunity to put an end to Damascus’ influence. “The struggle for freedom in Syria is our own struggle for freedom,” says Sheik Masen al-Mohammed, one of the most important Sunni religious leaders in Tripoli. “We Lebanese are part of the Syrian revolution, part of the rebellion. If Syria gains its freedom, then we will also win in Lebanon.” In addition to the political reasons, the sheik also has a key reason for encouraging Lebanese to fight in Syria. “Assad is an infidel,” the sheik says, noting that the Syrian dictator is part of the Alawite sect, which splintered from Shiite Islam hundreds of years ago. Sheik Masen views Assad as an enemy rather than a true Muslim.
{…}
First European Joins Fight Against Regime

Sheik Masen expresses hope that the situation in Syria will soon be like Iraq was and that Arabs from all nations will join forces to battle the regime. “If we get to that point, then we will be able to mobilize tens of thousands of Lebanese,” he says.

“I have a long list of telephone numbers of men who want to go to war in Syria,” Abu Rami says, adding that most are experienced fighters. “Of the Lebanese who are deployed now, around 60 percent already fought in Iraq,” he says. Men who once did battle against American soldiers, and were branded as al-Qaida terrorists, are now fighting on the side of Syrian insurgents, whose victory over Assad would be entirely welcomed by the West. Still, the involvement of foreign jihadist fighters makes it more difficult to differentiate between good and evil in the Syrian conflict.
Last week, the first European fighter voluntarily crossed the border and entered into Syria to fight alongside the Free Syrian Army against the Assad regime. He was “a Frenchman who had just turned 24 and comes from a wealthy family,” reports Abu Rami. “He just turned up here with his credit card in hand.” Abu Rami says he tried in vain to talk the man, whose parents are Algerian, out of it. “He bought a gun, we gave him a short bit of training and then he went in with one of our units,” he says.

With all military options appearing to be counterproductive, the only chance of halting Syria’s descent into total chaos is Annan’s political mediation. Its unstated premise is that enough senior officials in the regime can be persuaded to change course, with enough safe exits for the most divisive figures, to enable the situation to stabilise and reform to start.

But, for that to happen, Russia will have to exercise its influence much more constructively than it has so far. That is a slim reed for the Syrian people to grasp, but unhappily it’s the only one around.

Some still argue that supporting the opposition will “militarize” the Syrian crisis, diverting the revolution from a more peaceful and supposedly more effective path. But the reality, of course, is that this crisis is already “militarized.” And tangible outside support for the opposition is now a necessary condition for any Syrian’s continued ability to resist the regime’s all-out onslaught. Without such support, the Syrian people have virtually no chance of maintaining their courageous stand — whether peaceful or armed for self-defense — against regime power. For this reason, immediately supporting the opposition is not a diversion from peaceful protest, but rather the only way to preserve an option for civil resistance.

Abu Rami hails from Lebanon, but his heart is in Syria these days. The 40-year-old is one of hundreds of Arabs who are fighting against the Assad regime at the side of Syrian insurgents. Many of these volunteer fighters are veterans of the Iraq war, who have now brought their holy war to Syria.

Abu Rami’s last foray into war wasn’t much of a success. Just after his unit had crossed over the border, one of his men lost his wits. The young man cowered in the undergrowth, trembled and didn’t budge. Out of necessity, the whole unit had to come to a stop: Ten Lebanese, armed with 10 Kalashnikovs loaded with 65 magazines of ammunition, had come to a standstill inside the Syrian border, without any backup.

It was pure luck that the group wasn’t spotted by a Syrian border patrol and that they didn’t come under fire. “We sent the man with the weak nerves back to Lebanon. The rest of us made it as far as Homs,” a 40-year-old man who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Rami said, two days after his return from Syria.

The protest stronghold of Homs is located around 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) from the border, and the Lebanese volunteers wanted to fight alongside Syrian rebels in the city’s Khaldiyeh district. But after they ran out of ammunition, the guerrillas had to retreat. Abu Rami says his unit is now waiting in the safety of Lebanon for its next deployment.

Abu Rami is a commander in the growing band of volunteer Lebanese fighters who are getting involved in the conflict in neighboring Syria. Most come from Tripoli, the northern Lebanese city that is largely home to a Sunni Muslim population. Their hatred of the Assad regime is rooted in the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, which only ended in 2005.

Despite the withdrawal of its troops, Syria still exercizes considerable influence over Beirut. The Shiites are also in power in the Lebanese capital, further fomenting the hatred of Lebanese Sunnis against Assad and his Lebanese allies, which including the Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

Neighbor-on-neighbor violence between Sunnis and Shiites is breaking out across Syria, according to reports, and some fear sectarian strife could spread beyond the country’s borders.

Refugees fleeing Syria have begun speaking to reporters about the type of government-sponsored violence there, and the picture is grim. The New York Times’ Anne Barnard spoke with refugees in Lebanon who “described a worrying new element: what they see as an increasingly sectarian motive to the violence.”

In The Times, the refugees said that even in smaller villages, residents are falling victim to government crackdowns, shelling and sniper fire. “The refugees said they believed that a majority of Sunni residents of four villages, Rabli, Zahra, Joussi and Mazaria, had fled to other countries or other areas inside Syria.”

The paper says the accounts “reinforce reports from activists reached inside Syria by telephone and e-mail of displacement along sectarian lines, and interviews with people in Syria.” United Press International reports that there are at least 6,000 refugees in eastern Lebanon—a community that says they’ve been threatened by Sunni civilians armed by the government.
(…)

Robert Grenier
Former CIA station chief Robert Grenier heads ERG partners, a financial consultancy firm.

But does anyone honestly think that the Syrian regime, committed as it is to a programme of violent intimidation and collective punishment, will provide “full humanitarian access”, or a daily “humanitarian pause” for those whom it suspects of aiding its adversaries? What are the chances that the tender Mr Assad will release detainees who may promptly rejoin the struggle against him, or that he will permit foreign journalists to freely document his atrocities? Who would want to bet his life, or the lives of those dear to him, that Bashar and his generals will honour a ceasefire, or engage in good faith in a “political dialogue” with those who are challenging their power?

[Ron, the language edited below is not acceptable by the Rules and Regulations of Joshua Landis’s Syria Comment.]

I see the pro-regime propaganda machine is working at full power. Keep it up, make your money-mongering warlord proud. Every website I go to, the same comments are being repeated by surprisingly well versed Alawites with a strong mastery of the English language and seemingly enough spare time to argue forever.

I wonder if there is a third-party company that actually offers such as a service. Internet image clean-up while the dictator is busy “cleaning up” his own people. The premise is very simple and proved to be efficient throughout history. Repeat a lie enough times and it becomes a fact.

Propaganda 101. Salafi, Mossads, NWO, Vampires… but I just don’t see anyone buying it. Hard to portray in positive light a regime/clan that’s been terrifying its own people for more than 40 years while sucking the country of every penny, selling land to Israel and Turkey and filling their pockets and guts. Scheming, murdering, lying, humiliating, abusing…those are some of the “virtues” of this regime. And I don’t think we have seen the worse yet.

Killing terrorists is something to curse the Syrian Army about and keep linking, but the terrorists Dabi7a of Dei Azzor to kill teachers is something we need not to mention otherwise we are immoral according to ‘alqaeda’ standards:

MOSCOW, March 30 (Itar-Tass) —— Moscow welcomes the full support of the League of Arab States (LAS) to the Syrian mission of Kofi Annan, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday, in comment on the LAS summit held in Baghdad on March 29.

“We views as important and natural that the summit highlighted joint Arab efforts towards de-escalation of tensions and prevention of violence and bloodshed in the Middle East and North Africa. In this context the summit delegates discussed the situation in Syria, Libya and a number of other countries passing through a hard period of internal reforms and transformations,” the ministry said.

“The summit’s keynote idea was the appeal for peaceful settlement of conflicts and disputes on the basis of the national dialog, with the observation of international laws and without external interference,” the ministry said. “The summit voiced full support to the mission of UN/LAS Special Envoy for Syria Kofi Annan aimed to achieve peace settlement in that country through the termination of armed violence by all sides under the efficient control of the UN special mechanism, the rendering of humanitarian aid to the civilian population and the startup of the inclusive inter-Syrian dialog.”

“The Arab summit participants were unanimous about the need to preserve the integrity of Syria, to ensure its security and stability and to support the lawful aspirations of the Syrian people for freedom and democracy and their right to determine their future themselves. The Arab leaders also expressed support to the Palestinian membership in the UN and efforts to achieve inter-Palestinian reconciliation,” the ministry said.

“The LAS summit gave much attention to other problems of the Middle East, including the central problem of comprehensive and fair settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict on the universally acknowledged legal platform,” the ministry said.

“The forum documents, among them the Baghdad Declaration, confirmed the wish of the League of Arab States to play an active role in the strengthening of collective and legal foundations of the world politics and the search for political and diplomatic ways of settling pressing international and regional problems,” the ministry said.

“Moscow welcomes this attitude and confirms its interest in the mounting of interaction with the LAS aimed to ensure lasting peace and security,” the ministry said.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_03_30/70121908/
Primakov gets his book republished as Mideast crisis unfolds
The way the situation in the Middle East developed in 2011 proved that the region’s crisis has turned even deeper. The number of people concerned about the issue has also increased. Russia’s prominent Oriental studies expert Yevgeny Primakov, who personally knows many Arab kings and princes, has recently had his book republished under the title “The Middle East: On the Stage and Behind the Scenes”.

A wave of Arab Spring uprisings hit the region in early 2011, toppling the regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen. Libya and Syria stood next in the line, but Mr. Primakov thinks that the way the events unfolded in these countries had little in common with the Arab Spring scenario. “From the very first moment anti-government protesters took up arms”, Mr. Primakov says…

“We have a reason to say that if anti-regime protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen were sporadic and were not orchestrated by the US, then in Libya and Syria Washington and NATO decided to take control of the situation and prevent ‘unwanted’ Gaddafi and Assad from staying in power.

The Western countries will have to decide what is worse: totalitarian regime in the Arab states or the consequences of these regimes being overthrown. Long-serving authoritarian leaders have always opposed radical Islamists and any kind of extremist organizations seeking power. One way or another they fought against terrorists and did not shelter any extremist gangs like al-Qaida. The fact that authoritarian regimes had a positive impact on economic relations meant a lot to both Russia and the US.

The Arab Spring uprising in Tunisia and Egypt resulted in Islamist organizations seizing power there. Currently the future of these two countries depends greatly on relations between moderate and radical Islamists, Mr. Primakov thinks. Foreign countries are now seeking a new approach to dealing with the regional powers. The US, for example, is busy establishing official contacts with moderate Islamists.

Iraq`s tragedy has proved that democracy forced from within is doomed. The same holds true for post-Gaddafi Libya.

Despite all lessons learned from political, economic and human losses, a force method remains the most popular. Now public attention is drawn to Iran, with predictions being made on whether or not the country will be attacked amid Tehran`s refusal to stop its uranium enrichment program. Mr. Primakov thinks that the attack could have a counter-effect.

“This will just result in Iran becoming even more enthusiastic about the issue. Practically all intelligence services worldwide agree that Tehran has not yet decided to produce nuclear weapons. I am not sure about Mossad, but from media reports I`ve learned that the US shares this opinion. The problem is that an attack could force Iran to make this political decision and start seeking a nuclear bomb. If so, what will happen to Iraq and other Arab states? Undoubtedly, this will trigger terror activity.”

It does not realty matter whether these problems are discussed ‘behind the scenes’ or during high-profile international meetings. The main task is to prevent the entire Mideast region from turning into a hotbed of extremism, Yevgeny Primakov believes.

The Vatican will attend Syria’s enemies conference in Istanbul ,they will be sitting next to SA.On a side talks they will be discussing how to apply Saudi’s grand mufti plan to destroy churches.They also will listen to SA advises on how to protect minorities and women in Syria applying SA experience.

Why you even bothered with this news? The Vatican doesn’t have any power over the Syrian Christians, It’s all political and I’m glad that they will attend, let’s see if they will be impressed with the crap they will hear.

As far as I know the majority of the Syrian Christians do not follow the Vatican, is that correct? and if so, who will even listen to what the Vatican will say. When the Syrian Muslims are ignoring the SA, you think the Syrian Christians will listen to the Vatican under this circumstances and when Syria is under attack?

It’s all a western game now lead by US and EU, didn’t you read Assafir article, they talked about this point:

Bashar said in an interview on 13 Dec 2011: “Those who conduct the armed struggle can be divided into three categories. The first one of them is a small group of al-Qaeda network, which does not have any influence among the Syrians. The second one is the Muslim Brotherhood, which is also a small group, although they have a serious influence among the radicals. The majority of the radical opposition are the people who do not hold the membership in such organizations.” http://english.pravda.ru/hotspots/conflicts/13-12-2011/119945-bashar_assad-0/ . And in an interview on 7 Dec 2011 Bashar Assad used the word “militants” eight times but never used the word “Islamist” (nor “Islam” nor “Muslim”). One thing Bashar did say on 7 Dec 2011 was: “Not everybody in the street was fighting for freedom. You have different components… [including] religious extremists” (ABC TV News interview).

Nir Rosen was in Syria in January 2012 and he wrote in March 2012: “Syria’s uprising is not a secular one. Most participants are devout Sunni Muslims inspired by Islam. A minority is secular and another minority is comprised of ideological Islamists. But the majority of those participating in the uprising are religious-minded people with little ideology, like most Syrians. They are not fighting to defend secularism (nor is the regime) but they are also not fighting to establish a theocracy. But as the conflict grinds on, Islam is playing an increasing role in the uprising.” http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/03/08/islamism_and_the_syrian_uprising

I say the Islamists cannot be dominant by definition unless and until you hear clear Islamist sloganeering from a majority of the people who claim to be in the Free Syrian Army. You don’t hear that today. You can hear chanting for the Free Syrian Army at virtually all anti-regime protests. But you usually don’t hear Islamist chanting at the protests. Some cases of Islamist chanting can be found, but one shouldn’t overweight them.

Here’s a related comment posted above at #128 ZOO: “Muslim hardliners want to make religion the unifying basis of the revolt. Radical Islamist elements are still on the fringe, but that’s enough to make a headache for opposition activists who are struggling to convince Syrian minorities to support a revolt led mostly by the country’s Sunni majority.”

Annan with a plan
The UN’s plan could have short-term benefits but is unlikely to end Syria’s crisis
Mar 31st 2012 | BEIRUT |

OVER the 13 months of upheaval in Syria, President Bashar Assad has repeatedly promised to stop the violence. Earlier this year he dashed Arab League hopes of mediating a solution, unleashing his army to blast cities such as Homs, Syria’s third-biggest, and dragging the death toll over 9,000. Hardly surprising, then, that scepticism greeted reports, on March 27th, of Mr Assad’s agreement to the plan for a settlement recently devised by Kofi Annan, the joint UN-Arab League emissary.

Syria’s seemingly inexorable drift towards greater tragedy justifies doubt, but this time it may be slightly misplaced. For one thing, Mr Assad is not the only one to sign on to the Annan plan—his allies Iran, China and Russia have too. So, hesitantly, has Syria’s main opposition group, the Syrian National Council.

In his first response to the plan the Syrian president made his agreement conditional on an end to support by unnamed countries for what he called “armed terrorist groups”. But Annan rejected this approach. “The government must stop first and then discuss a cessation of hostilities with the other side and with the mediator,” his spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, insisted on Friday. “We expect him to implement this plan immediately.”

I understand and agree that the ‘radicals’ don’t make the majority of the armed militia, now, however those groups are responsible for almost every major attack happening in Syria, and they are by far the most dangerous and criminal of all of other groups within the armed militia of fsa.

I don’t really care what other said 4-5 months ago, what I see is an increase of the radical religious based presence within fsa with an obvious radical leadership of the militia on ground.

I think it’s matter of weeks before the local Alqaeda is official working inside the country and will see an increase of sectarian attacks directed to make a copy of how things started in Iraq, I even read that they are planning to attack a Shia shrines in Lebanon to stir the sectarian issue even further.

@ JAD # 180: I agree with you that we’re seeing an increase of religious radicals in the armed militia. And you agree with me that the religious radicals don’t make the majority of the armed militia today. So we’re seeing the same reality.

Yesterday Assad said that in return for a formal commitment by Syria for the implementation of Annan’s plan, it is necessary for Annan to obtain commitments from other parties to stop all acts of violent rebellion. Now today, as linked to by #278, a spokesman for Annan is rejecting this position: “The Syrian government must stop first and then discuss a cessation of hostilities with the other side and with the mediator,” Annan’s spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, insisted on Friday. “We expect him to implement this plan immediately.”

That statement by Ahmad Fawzi is the same as innumerable statements in the past by Ban Ki-moon. The Syrian government has rejected them and ignored them and will continue to do so.

As I’ve said before, Annan’s enterprise makes no logical sense to me.

PS: Maqdisi in that 45-minute interview is asked almost no questions and there’s almost no dialog. Instead Maqdisi speaks ad lib for 45 minutes — a good sign of somebody who knows his game. He does have a few notes in front of him to remind him of what he wants to say. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEM-Xo-mXt0

Egypt Islamist registers for election amid fanfare
30/03/2012http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=29062
CAIRO, (AFP) — Egyptian Islamist sheikh Hazem Abu Ismail kicked off his candidacy for the presidency on Friday with a large motorcade that headed to the electoral committee headquarters in Cairo.

Witnesses said dozens of vehicles packed with the ultra-conservative’s supporters left a mosque with the statutory 30,000 endorsements from citizens required to register as a candidate.

Outside the mosque, they chanted “Look Obama, Sheikh Hazem is a knowledgeable cleric,” referring to US President Barack Obama.

Abu Ismail, who advocates a strict interpretation of Islam similar to the one practised in Saudi Arabia, has become a familiar sight in Cairo, with his posters adorning many cars and micro buses.
(..)

The US is urging Saudi Arabia to support international diplomatic efforts to resolve the bloody crisis in Syria amid concern that the Saudis and Qatar are planning to arm the rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.
..
Clinton, the British foreign secretary William Hague, and dozens of other western and Arab foreign ministers will be in Istanbul on Sunday for a meeting of the Friends of Syria group, designed to demonstrate resolve and orchestrate action against the Damascus regime.

The last time the group met the Saudis said it was “a good idea” to arm the Syrian rebels and create a safe haven on the Turkish border. The US, UK and most western and Arab countries, which united to support the anti-Gaddafi Libyan rebels last year, disagreed.

Diplomats and analysts insist there is still no hard evidence of Saudi or Qatari supplies to the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the main armed wing of the opposition. “There is a lot of lobbying but little sign they have acted on it,” said one western official.

The Saudis have reportedly been pressing Jordan to allow weapons across their border into Syria, so far to no avail. Turkey is also preventing arms transfers.

For all the talk, the FSA is still only lightly armed. “They are organised locally and armed with nothing more sophisticated than AK-47 assault rifles, RPGs, and PK machine guns,” according to Malik al-Abdeh, a London-based supporter of the Syrian National Council.
..
In his first response to the plan the Syrian president made his agreement conditional on an end to support by unnamed countries for what he called “armed terrorist groups”. But Annan rejected this approach. “The government must stop first and then discuss a cessation of hostilities with the other side and with the mediator,” his spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, insisted on Friday. “We expect him to implement this plan immediately.”
(..)

LONDON (Reuters) – Iran is helping its ally Syria defy Western sanctions by providing a vessel to ship Syrian oil to a state-run company in China, potentially giving the government of President Bashar al-Assad a financial boost worth an estimated $80 million.

Turkey is planning to begin importing oil from Libya instead of Iran as it seeks to comply with U.S. demands that countries reduce their dependence on the Islamic republic’s natural resources, according to Energy Minister Taner Yıldız.
..
The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) described Erdoğan’s visit to Tehran as a “fiasco,” noting that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delayed his meeting with Erdoğan on the grounds he was sick, but met with a delegation from Turkmenistan the dame day.

“Erdoğan has returned empty-handed,” the CHP’s Faruk Loğoğlu said.
(..)

This is the full declaration that Ahmad Fawzi said. The part about ‘gesture of good faith’ and the request for the opposition to lat down the arms has been skipped by the media.

“The government must stop first and then discuss a cessation of hostilities with the other side,” said Annan spokesman Ahmad Fawzi.

“We are appealing to the stronger party to make a gesture of good faith. … The deadline is now.”
…
Annan is dispatching a deputy, Nasser El-Kidwa, to meet with government opponents within the next several days and demand that they “lay down their arms and start talking,” Fawzi said.

Annan also is arranging visits to “key countries in the region” such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, but no dates have been fixed yet, Fawzi said. The aim of Annan’s visit is “to stress that this is the only plan in town” for resolving the crisis, the spokesman said.

Poor Erdogan, I worry for his health after all the successive drawbacks he is encountering.
The failure of the FOS to recognize his creation, the SNC, would be a final blow to his efforts to unseat Bashar.

The Delhi Declaration issued at the end of the summit reflected the shared perception of the BRICS countries, which account for 40 percent of global GDP and nearly half the world’s population, on these burning global issues that pit them against the Western approach of using sanctions and speculation about the use of force to resolve complex global issue
….
The declaration supported “a Syrian-led inclusive political process”, an explanation India had used to justify its vote on the UN’s Syria resolution, and welcomed the joint efforts of the UN and the Arab League.

The BRICS leaders also welcomed the appointment of Kofi Annan, a former UN secretary general, as the joint special envoy on the Syrian crisis and supported him in his efforts play a role in spurring a political resolution of the crisis.

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned against external interference, saying that it has the potential to destroy the dialogue process. Medvedev added that he has proposed a collective humanitarian aid by the BRICS countries to the Syrian people.

The BRICS’ stand on Syria and Iran will be viewed with unease by the West which has tended to see the five-nation grouping as an attempt at an alternate world order.

In this respect, the fourth BRICS summit in Delhi marked the evolution of a group focused on global economic governance issues to one which is trying to achieve greater political coherence.

This was reflected in the BRICS’ formulation on the festering crisis in the Middle East and North Africa.

“We agree that the period of transformation taking place in the Middle East and North Africa should not be used as a pretext to delay resolution of lasting conflicts but rather it should serve as an incentive to settle them, in particular the Arab-Israeli conflict,” said the declaration.
(..)

Egypt Islamist registers for election amid fanfare
30/03/2012http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=29062
CAIRO, (AFP) — Egyptian Islamist sheikh Hazem Abu Ismail kicked off his candidacy for the presidency on Friday with a large motorcade that headed to the electoral committee headquarters in Cairo.

Witnesses said dozens of vehicles packed with the ultra-conservative’s supporters left a mosque with the statutory 30,000 endorsements from citizens required to register as a candidate.
….
Outside the mosque, they chanted “Look Obama, Sheikh Hazem is a knowledgeable cleric,” referring to US President Barack Obama.
(..)

@ ZOO #294: According to Jihad Maqdisi in the interview linked to by JAD at #280, “Mr. Kofi Annan acknowledged the right of the State to respond to armed violence.” But I cannot find Kofi Annan quoted saying that anywhere on the Internet. I would like Kofi Annan to come out and say it clearly on the public record, and reiterate it. And reiterate it again.

@ ZOO #294: According to Jihad Maqdisi in the interview linked to by JAD at #280, “Mr. Kofi Annan acknowledged the right of the State to respond to armed violence.” But I cannot find Kofi Annan quoted saying that anywhere on the Internet. I would like Kofi Annan to come out and say it clearly on the public record, and reiterate it. And reiterate it again.

The al qaeda-obsessed propagandists here must be dumb or they hope people reading their media shabbiha posts are really dumb.

This is the first time we’ve seen al qaeda working with a western-supported side, target buildings rather than people, team up with other political and organised groups etc – lots of firsts.

While these “new type” al qaeda try out this approach in obscurity and confusion, their limelight and messages are being stolen by that unbalanced loner in Paris who demonstrated the real face of al qaeda.

It’s fair to conclude Assad’s al quaeda have links with the phantom al qaeda that Gaddafi and Ben Ali were squawking about when their own citizens had them on the run.

Syrian (Revution):
No Alqaeda
Not Sectarian
No Kiddnapping
No lying
No killing
No violence
Selmiee
No foreign fighters
No Israeli weapons
No Aljazera lies
No public hanging
Not Islamic
Not Sunni
No foreign influence
No killing 3000 soldiers
No jesr Alshogour Massacr
No Karam Alzaiton massacr
No Sari Saaoud killing
No sari Hasson killing
No George Gharam killing
No Nidal Janoud killing
No cutting soldier body in DearAlzour
No soldier torturing
No Damascus bombing
No Aleppo Bombing
No Ezla Attack
Not Turkeys puppets
No Khaled Abo Salah staging and lies
No Dany and CNN staging and lies
No Alhamedia crime against humanity
No Alhamedia Ethnic cleansing
No Dear Sidnya Attack

I do not think that Annan’s plan is going to work, there is no chance that the Syrian army will abandon it’s responsibility in providing safety and security to all Syrians, until there is a clear indication that the rebellion is dead and the militant are willing to join the reform the plan is dead on arrival. i see no chance of no winners or losers in Syria, one side has to win and i think that side is the government side.

You are right, there are so many first times. But I would have thought that they would instrumentalize the whole issue over and over, but thats just not happening.The first two days after the bombings you see the dreadful images, but no confessionshows or other investigations were made public. Given the nature of Syrias security apparatus its quite embarassing if we would believe such thing as an syrian Alquaida has the ability to strike just a mile from important goverment buildings and even the residency of the President isnt that far. How can he sleep tight nowadays?

Hi Hopeful,
I’m impressed with your analysis of the Syrian groups at this stage, I’m also in agreement with your 3 major political parties that is going to dominate the Syrian political life if the changes promised by the government went through, with one change to the the Syrian Islamic Coalition that it will be hidden or coated with something not so obvious, not sure what, probably ‘Conservative party’ without a strong Islamic flavor to it.
I only have couple points that I disagree with you on
-for some reason you put the silent Sunni majority as a one group into the ‘Islamist’ group along the Salafis and the Conservatives (probably MBs) which is in my opinion an unfair judgement to the majority of the Syrian society since this group as you wrote it (moderate) and (completely unpoliticized) to be put with the radicals.
-Ignoring the ethnic minorities (Kurds, Assyrians, Armenians ets..) from the whole study is a flaw that needs to be addressed and analyzed.
-Asking the ‘Islamists’ and the ‘liberal democrats’ to convince the “minority” and that “nationalist” of their agenda is like asking the devil to convince God in his good nature which won’t happen 🙂

Other than that you did a great work, form a truly Syrian point of view and not the stereotypical sectarian western views.
Thank you

prof landis on the previous thread, in the al monitor video debate, argued syrians lack a unifying identify. bassma kodmani said she couldn’t disagree more. she insisted despite the various sects, syrians strongly feel the sense of being syrian.

doesn’t everybody want democracy? doesn’t everybody want to be free? couldn’t that also be a unifying force? why does one need to cling to sectarian identity in order to have a sense of that we are all in this together?

1. Perhaps I should have called the 2nd category the “Conservatives” or the “Sunni Religious” group instead of the “Islamists”. This category will include the moderates (2.3), the extremists (2.2), and the ultra-extremists(2.1). While I agree that this group is moderate and un-politicized, I also believe that, today, this group lacks the political sophistication to vote for anyone who is NOT a sunni muslim in any truly democratic election.

2. Regarding the ethnic minorities other than the Alawites and the Christians, I can be wrong but I believe that they are divided between the first (specifically 1.2 & 1.3) and the third category (specifically 3.1); and therefore, they do not “form” a single group from the political affiliation/ideology perspective.

3. I am asking the moderates from all categories to restrain the extremists in their own category and reach out to the moderates in the other categories. This is my hope!

1-I agree that the majority of this group will vote for a Syrian ‘Sunni muslim in any truly democratic election’, however they will vote for someone of THEM, which means a moderate not a conservative or even an ultra conservative and as a result a Moderate representative will lead the ‘Conservative’ group. Right?

2-I can’t see any average Syrian Kurd to be under category 1.2 or 1.3
and we defiantly have a problem putting them under 3.1 because of the conflict history with the ‘Arabism’ government policies.
To be honest, I find the Syrian Kurds to be more politically mature than almost all the politicians, loyalist and oppositions put together, they are very liberal even thought they belong to the same religious of the conservative, and very peaceful and protective to their peaceful movement than any other group in Syria today who went crazy and partnered with the devil.
In my humble opinion, the majority of the Syrian Kurds proved to be more Syrians than all of us.
I also agree that they can`t form a single group but at the same time it`s difficult to separate them in the proposed categories, I might be wrong, but that is my opinion reading your excellent analysis.

Lybia is indeed a Qatari “success”: it is the next Soudan.http://www.egyptindependent.com/node/742711
“The head of Libya’s Toubou tribe on Friday called for international intervention to halt what he called the “ethnic cleansing” of his people after deadly clashes in the southern oasis of Sabha.

“We demand that the United Nations and European Union intervene to stop the ethnic cleansing of the Toubou,” said Issa Abdel Majid Mansur, a former opposition activist against the ousted regime of slain dictator Muammar Qadhafi.

He accused Arab tribes in Sabha of bombarding a power station providing electricity to several parts of southern Libya including Qatrun and Morzuk, both areas with a strong Toubou presence. (…)”

Omen
If you See in History 30-40 are Not much.there is much hate Torwards religious and Religion in General in Iran.the Mullahs have accomplished by islamising every Part of the Life that a Whole Generation turns against Religion. Iranians are smart enough to know that this Regime is enjoying its Last years.

Omen
I am not saying that the regime is angels.What I am saying is that having such a dirty (revolution )is not justifiable.
One time a philospher was asked how he thinks the third world war will be? His answe was he doesn’t know,but he thinks that the 4th world war is going to be
With rocks and sticks.
The opposition should put their dirty but down and sit on the table.

All what the so called arab spring is creating is failed states that’s what the Neocon planned for the Arabs, Gaza, Iraq, Somali, Tunisia, Libya, and Syria is next, it is clear that no one benefit from this new Geopolitical state more than Israel and all the ones who denies the western conspiracy are either part of the conspiracy or in denial for the purpose of climbing to the helm.
MB and Alqaida are all over the Arab Spring, USA in support to place radical regimes in place of Autocratic regimes.
Although this may be a tactical move to put citizens under more Misery given radical regimes have mentality of retards at best.
Internet and other ways of communication have made the world a tiny small lake where everyone can see the other naked in the same lake therefore the only options of the radicals is to continue to swim underwater, which means ending to the radicals ideology in time.
The only exception to this hypothesis that radical usually withdraw from the civilization and shell themselves into an rock shell where the only respond you will have is more terrorist attacks and radicalization.
Afghanistan and other countries can attest well to this theory.
Assad worst mistake is allowing the Sunni to build more mosques in the last 40 years than building schools in Syria. Mosques raise only more hardliners and more terrorists at the end of the day.http://observers.france24.com/

DAMASCUS — Syria declared Saturday it had defeated those seeking to bring down the regime while reiterating support for a UN-Arab peace plan, as its troops reportedly shelled rebels in the flashpoint city of Homs.

Foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdisi, cited by the official SANA news agency, also said that Syrian troops would withdraw from urban areas once they had been stabilized.
….
“The battle to topple the state is over, and the battle to solidify stability . . . and move on towards a renewed Syria has begun,” Makdisi said in an interview originally carried on state television.

The spokesman said the Assad government’s focus was also to “rally visions behind the reform process” and “prevent those who seek to sabotage reform.”

Troops would withdraw from urban areas once they were secured, he said, adding UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan acknowledged there were “illegitimate armed elements within the opposition”.

“The presence of the Syrian Arab army in Syrian cities is for defensive purposes (so) as to protect the civilians,” Makdisi was quoted as saying by SANA.

“Once peace and security prevail, the army is to pull out,” he added.

SANA said that Makdisi made the appearance on television in a bid to explain to Syrians why the government had this week accepted Annan’s six-point peace plan.
….
A UN official in New York said a minimum of 250 observers would be needed if the Syrian government halted its offensive on protesters and gave its agreement for the international force.
(…}

In Bahrein victims only “allege”, and in Hillary’s “wonderful potential” KSA, victims are totally silenced.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-17564341
Amnesty International has demanded the jailed Bahraini human rights activist, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, be released “immediately and unconditionally”.
Mr Khawaja has been on a hunger strike for the past 51 days and as his condition deteriorates there is growing concern that he may die in prison.
He is refusing food in protest at the life sentence he received in June for allegedly plotting against the state.
Amnesty described his trial by a military court as “grossly unfair”. (…)
Abdulhadi al-Khawaja told the BBC before his arrest on 8 April that he had deliberately stayed away from Pearl Roundabout.
“I don’t want to give the authorities any reason to arrest me,” he said.
He was nevertheless picked up in a late night raid and subsequently received a life sentence from a military tribunal for plotting the overthrow of the government. (…)
He was taken to a Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) hospital and spent seven days blindfolded and handcuffed to his bed, he told the BICI. While in hospital, he and his family were threatened with sexual abuse, he said.
Mr Khawaja said he then spent two months in solitary confinement in prison and was denied access to a lawyer. He also alleged that he was sexually assaulted and regularly beaten.” (…)

Teachers killers are darkness forces.Why are (revolutionists ) killing teachers?
Any one who supports them is teachers killer? Why would you kill someone who left his family and kids sometime to come all the way from Tartous to teach your kids?Because he or she is Alawi or Christian ? How low is that?Any one who support teachers killer is a teacher killer.keep closing your eyes to the fact that this is terrorist Tilibani Syrian movement .keep acting blind and deny that this is
Alqaeda Afghan style jihad.Keep putting your retarded revenge filled brain in the
Sand and Dirt of wahbism and Islamic extremism until worms eat it:

It is almost certain that Mubarak will not live to hear the verdict against him in June.His natural death,assuming that conspiracy theorists do not come with a new story,will provide an easy exit for the ruling military council that will NOT accept a death penalty against him.
Imagine a situation where corrupt and brutal Arab rulers suffer from a swift and fatal illness and spare their countries the agony of lengthy trials,after all,natural death can not be called violence and nobody can sue God.
الأعمار بيد الله but how come wonderful people often live a relatively short life and many others live longer than Noah?
BTW,if Hamad is the heart of Syria,then we must register the country for a heart transplant before it is too late.

A question. [At the risk of being shot down. Perhaps a desperate strategy]

If the opposition gets desperate do you think the FSA will decided to speed up the fall of the economy thru targeting the vulnerable banking sector by robbing banks without physically* hurting anybody? To have a real affect they would have to target the banks in the major cities rather than in rebel areas.

Do you think these ‘Robin Hood’ operations can be justified** under certain circumstances, where the whole purpose would be to topple the increasingly cruel regime via the economic/financial structure?

* Such operations would have to be carefully considered so that any banks with guards are not targeted.

** There is the issue of harming peoples savings. Would these savings be guaranteed anyway by the banks or government? Perhaps the opposition can promise that a future government will recompense those affected?

Maybe the money attained in these operations can be held in a safe place to return later. Alternatively it can temporarily be used to buy necessities for the suffering people. Perhaps even arms.

To have a real affect they would have to target the banks in the major cities.

The Arsonists M.Brothers sure will be thrown in the dustbin of history,The sun is just dawning.By the time,it is mid day-The Arsonists would have been vanquished by the great syrian fire fighters from the face of the earth.

So KSA support arming the Syrians, USA said we should help in non lethal aid, and US …suspect… that Assad will not survive.
There is clear change in US position,or that is the position of USA from the begining and they have not been telling the truth, I believe the later, I think that is why Turkey has not been able to do anything yet, Israel and USA they prefer to keep Assad, and USA wants to support Iran as a mjor power in the middle East, they just do not want Iran to have nuclear power,the whole thing is conspiracy against the Arab, Change in Syria to a democratic country is against USA policy, it is a worry to the USA to see Arab spring, and wants to stop it,
There is no way Arab springs were successful in four countries and Syria will not succeed, what is left is Syria, and Syria will succeed too, but because the US and Israel support for Assad it will take time, but it is a sure thing,

It is silly to ask for a unified opposition,The US has more than one part, they are not unified,the demonstrating people inside Syria are unifified,against Assad, this demand is nothing but justification for not wanting to do anything.

The trap of “majority rule” and why it needs to be replaced with a democracy rulehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/31/egypt-constitution-majority-rule
The only legitimate majority is the one achieved by consensus and elections.
If majority rule means dividing the society into ethnic and sectarian blocks,then we would have never seen a black president in the US or women in leadership positions.
I am glad that more people are realizing ,finally,that a unified opposition is a mirage,the other mirage is that violence will bring freedom.

You may have already heard about George Galloway winning a stunning By-election victory on thursday and returning to parliament. Great news to see him back in the heart of british politics.

Moving on.

Do you think we will see an end to Assad and his regimes indefatigability?

If the situation remains unchanged upto Ramadan in mid-July then I think we will see much more defections particularly in the military. Those who have been internally torn and haven’t taken the brave step to jump ship may just do so. The blessed month of Ramadan may be what it takes to help them make that decision. It may push them over the line.

The USA and Israel will not allow have armed islamists extremists at the door of Israel.
The FSA make the mistake of not cleaning up their ranks from islamists, in the contrary it was more than happy to have them fighting with them against the Syrian army. Therefore nobody will help the FSA to get more weapons for fear it will be used against Israel on the border. That has been the FSA’s fatal mistake and now they are discredited by the international community.
KSA and Qatar are enraged but Hillary went to calm them down and assure them that ultimately their hated Bashar will go peacefully after the elections. As KSA is panicking at the growth of Iran’s influence and power in its south area and in the region, Hillary offered to protect them from Iran by installing a missile defense system in exchange for their acceptance of Annan’s plan.
The FOS will show if Hillary was successful and if KSA-Qatar have changed their mind about arming the opposition.
In any case I would not be surprised that we will hear soon about some terrorist acts on the Israel-Syria borders that will frighten even more the USA and Israel about the danger of an islamist regime taking over Bashar’s.
The Syrian government seems to have, at least until for now, outsmarted not only Turkey but the USA and its allies.

“Today news from the FSA published the following, has anyone seen anything similar to this? “#FSA# Syria#Damascus#Mezza# Allahu akbar!! Heavy clashes between FSA and Assad forces, so far 90 Assad forces killed and more than 100 wounded and 200 defected from the Assad forces!!! Allahu akbar!! Allahu akbar!!! God bless the FSA!”I have not seen this confirmed anywhere…

While this is very thorough analysis, the questions put to vote are incomplete. There is a fifth choice about the regime fate besides these two extremes:

“- The regime stays on its current course of crushing the rebels, restraining free speech, restricting demonstrations, and introducing political reforms”

“-The regime agrees to step aside and negotiates the creation of a transitional government and a safe exit for its leaders and supporters”

The fifth choice:
– The regime stays on its current course of ensuring security in the whole country by disarming armed gangs and negotiating with rebels for a full ceasefire under the UN umbrella, allowing legal demonstrations under observers surveillance, allowing a certain level of freedom of speech, introducing political reforms and planning for elections”

The Syrian National Council (SNC) is starting to turn in on itself as Damascus has proved to be strongly resilient in weathering the storm. From the start the SNC was not a popular or representative body and it now appears on the decline even with foreign sponsorship and the continuous supplying of weapons from members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to its fighters on the ground in Syria…

The Purposes of the Attacks of the Syrian National Council and the Free Syrian Army

Both the SNC and its military wing, the so-called Free Syrian Army, have been used to subvert Syria. Their primarily goals are not to establish democracy or democratic reforms in Syria, but to transform Syria into a client state of the United States. In this regard, in the last year there has been a consistent and methodological attempt to destabilize all of Syria’s border areas.

The destabilization of Syria’s borders is tied to several tactics. One aim is to ensure that a continuous flow of arms and fighters from the borders of other countries is insured. Another aim is to cripple the Syrian economy by deactivating important Syrian economic activities and trade in strategic areas in tandem with U.S. and E.U. sanctions against Syria. In this regard, the oil producing hub of Deir Ezzor has been attacked as have pipelines and the Syrian port of Lattakia, rumoured to possibly be the home of a future Iranian naval base in the Mediterranean that would complement the Russian naval base in the port of Tartus. A third aim is to transform these destabilized areas as bridgeheads for forced entry into Syria as “protected areas” and “humanitarian corridors.”

“Most days, I feel silenced by the inhumanity of humanity. The last seven months of life in Syria tore down every lingering sense of hope I had in leadership, people in power. I’ve never before seen the good will of millions tossed so carelessly into the garbage with no regard for ordinary people, not a thought for future generations, not a care for the future – for what could or should be.”

The US is urging Saudi Arabia to support international diplomatic efforts to resolve the bloody crisis in Syria amid concern that the Saudis and Qatar are planning to arm the rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

On a day that saw now-familiar Friday protests and killings across Syria, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, was in Riyadh for talks with King Abdullah and other Saudi leaders as part of what was billed as an effort to pressure Assad.
(..)

A key summit on Syria is set to gather Western and Middle Eastern heavyweights in Istanbul on Sunday, with deep confusion remaining over how the year-long turmoil will be ended, amid rifts within both the international community and the Syrian opposition.

The so-called Friends of Syria meeting comes at a time when the world and the Syrian opposition are divided when it comes to the methodology to end the Syrian crisis. One of the main problems is how this meeting will be linked to the joint envoy of the United Nations and the Arab League Kofi Annan’s mission, aimed at ending the violence in Syria and opening channels for humanitarian assistance.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was scheduled to make a phone call to Annan Friday to invite him to the summit, although there was little hope that the former U.N. secretary-general could make it.
…
With the expectation that the Syrian National Council will be announced as “the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people,” the Friends of Syria will discuss how best to provide assistance to those suffering at the hands of the regime’s brutal security forces.
…
Ahead of the Istanbul summit, the Hürriyet Daily News has learnt that Annan urged both the United States and the European Union not to launch fresh initiatives that would complicate his mission.
..
“Solutions based on al-Assad staying in power are not realistic,” Davutoğlu added.
…
(..)

Dear Bronco,
To be honest, I didn’t vote for the proposed outcome of Mr. Maher yet, I think the situation keeps changing every hour and things can go from ok to bad to worse or the other way around according to the players in a matter of hours, as someone said ‘in the middle east even the water is flammable’
ksa seems to stay on track in their mission to destroy Syria even after Clinton’s visit, check out this crap out the mouth of the saudis:
الفيصل: تسليح المعارضة واجب لأنها لا تستطيع الدفاع عن نفسها إلا بالأسلحةhttp://www.syria-news.com/readnews.php?sy_seq=146156

I read this depressing interview comparing what happened in Lebanon in the 70s to what’s happening in Syria today, even the pathetic AL meetings and steps are exactly the same, I hope that the Syrians know how to outsmart the devils.

Gendarmes are deployed at the camps in charge of security, but refugees are allowed to go outside to do shopping and visit their relatives in nearby Turkish towns.

The camps also offer schooling for children with Arabic-speaking teachers giving lessons in maths, Turkish, computer science and Koranic studies. The sick and injured are treated at hospitals and women join handicraft courses.

While it says it is ready to extend any help for Syrians, Turkey also fears the number of arrivals could soar to the level of the half-million Iraqi Kurds who poured across the border to escape Saddam Hussein’s repression during the 1991 Gulf War.
…
Currently, the government has set up nine locations including eight tented camps and a “container city” in Kilis, some 150 kilometres (95 miles) east of the Hatay camps, to deal with the influx.
…
East of Kiflis in Sanliurfa province, near the halfway point of Turkey’s 910-kilometre (560-mile) border with Syria, another massive camp is under construction that can house up to 20,000 people.

While the mass influx is bound to have lasting consequences, Turkey is clear it does not want to see the Syrians as permanent residents and refuses to call them refugees.

“We call them Syrians under temporary protection, not refugees,” Suphi Atan, head of the foreign ministry’s task force in Hatay province, told AFP.

“They are deprived of the right to apply for refugee status. We expect them to voluntarily return to their country once the situation is secure,” he said. “But we cannot compel any Syrians to go back.”

Initially, the government had described them as “guests” to emphasise the temporary nature of their asylum in Turkey but later dropped the term because “there is no guest status in international law,” Atan said.

Some of the Syrians have already applied for asylum in Turkey, Metin Corabatir, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Turkey Office, confirmed.

But his office, in close coordination with Ankara, had to turn down the asylum requests because the temporary protection status is applicable in international law, he told AFP.
(..)

As for KSA, what they declare and what they do are two different things. I doubt they will send money for weapons to the rebels, but to save face they have to say they will. Who will check if they do or not? And who can guarantee where the money will go.

If KSA want to send weapons, they will have to convince Jordan to allow it through the borders. Syria will consider it as an aggression and will retaliate on Jordan. The jordanian king is so worried about internal uprisings that he has avoided being involved. I doubt he will agree. After failing diplomatically, the only weapon KSA has is an economical squeeze on Syria or an assassination attempt on the person of Bashar.

Raising security ties from a bilateral to a multilateral level, Clinton was breaking new ground in taking part in the first strategic cooperation forum between Washington and the GCC.

She looked to taking “practical and specific steps to strengthen our mutual security, such as helping our militaries improve interoperability, cooperate on maritime security and missile defence, and coordinate responses to crises.”

US officials have said it is a US “priority” to help the GCC build a “regional missile defence architecture” against what they see as a looming ballistic missile threat from Iran.

Speaking at the press conference, the chief US diplomat broadened her attack on Tehran.

Iran “continues to threaten its neighbours and undermine regional security, including through its support for the Assad regime’s murderous campaign in Syria, threats against the freedom of navigation in the region, and interference in Yemen,” she charged.
(..)

About the 60%, I think the site is very new and not promoted well so far, so 60% of the voters might be 6 people our of 10 which isn’t an indicative of reality, and since we don’t see how many people voted we can’t take the results seriously.
Here is the site link again in case people are not aware of it yethttp://onsyria.wordpress.com/

Civilians who took part in financing and supervising Al-Shabiha of them (Al-Shabiha is amilitia armed group which killed demonstrators and members of the army who refused tokill the demonstrators):

1.Ali al-Assad.

2.Hafez Munther al-Assad.

3.Osama al-Assad.

4.Etab Al-Assad and her gang.

5.Harun al-Assad and his sons.

6.Office of Fawaz al-Assad in Latakia.

7.Rami Mansour, husband of Ahmed al-Assad’s daughter.

8.Ayman Jaber, husband of Kamal al-Assad’s daughter.

9.Firas Rifaat al-Assad.

10.Moder Rifaat al-Assad.

11.Emad Abu Bilal Abu Kenan, a retired officer from Artouz.

12.(Ali Abbas), Ali Abbas Abu Hadi of the military security district of Tartus. He was seen ina video hitting people in the village of the White Stick.

13.Muhammad al-Assad, nicknamed ‘Sheikh of the Mountain’.

14.Hassan Assad Ibn Tawfiq.

15.Hussein al-Assad, the son of Tawfiq.

16.Kamal al-Assad. Businessmen who contributed externally, financing and purchasing weapons andmilitary equipment from the black market: Solomon Maarouf:a nephew of Major General Mohamed Nasef who lives in Dubai. He tried topurchase the sniper guns from South Africa which refused to sell them, so he had to buy themfrom the black market. He owns the bulk of the TV station ‘Al-Donia’.

Moderator,
Could you please deal with 6an6oun almotawahesh ‘wanted’ list.

6an6oun,
Are you the one going to execute and kill those Syrians or are you asking others on the ground to do it for you? Both ways, THEY DON’T READ ENGLISH, so you may need to learn Arabic or Urdu or Pashto to communicate with them, otherwise you only have the taliban Zouhair to plan together your crimes, one to bomb banks the other to slaughter Syrians.

In this letter the Syrian government says that 6143 Syrians have been killed since “the beginning of the events in Syria until 15 March 2012”. This death toll is “due to the acts committed by armed terrorist groups”, the letter added.
“Excellency,
I have the honor to transmit herewith a detailed table on the losses incurred in the Syrian
Arab Republic due to the acts committed by armed terrorist groups. The table covers the period from the beginning of the events in Syria until 15 March 2012 and it contains the following information:
§ Death toll of civilians: 3211 people.
§ Death toll of police: 478 people.
§ Death toll of Army and Security Forces: 2088 people (as of 21 March 2012).
§ Death toll of women: 204 people.
§ Death toll of children: 156 people.
§ Death toll of directly assassinated people: 106 people.
Resulting in a total of 6143 deaths in the Svrian Arab Republic
§ Kidnapped civilians, army personnel, and police officers: 1560 people, including 931 missing people.
§ Stolen government vehicles: 2256 vehicles.
It would be highly appreciate it if the present letter and its annex could be circulated as an official document of the Security Council.

The two only borders for heavy weapon transit to help the armed gangs are Turkey and Jordan. Iraq and Lebanon are no players.
Turkey will surely refuse to do it.
If Jordan would yield to KSA pressure, Syria will either mine the border or the Syrian Air Force will enter into action to destroy any heavy weapon entering the country and that will provoke a military escalation with Jordan: a recipe for a regional disaster.

That is ‘disgusting’! is Clinton a sectarian thug now? How could an American official speaks such horrific sectarian language? What next, stating that the American government is protecting ‘the Caucasian whites’ from ‘the African American blacks’?

I’m sure that Iran will use this against her very soon and she will need to explain herself, not to us, but to the Americans about her use of a sectarian language that reminds them of the Racist language they long ago fought against and still fighting to get rid of it, that is a terrible mistake by a so call ‘secular’ and ‘non-racist’ top administration of the modern world.

BEIRUT, (Reuters) – Syria has said a year-long revolt against President Bashar al-Assad is now over, but that it would retain its right to use its forces to “maintain security” before withdrawing from cities in line with a U.N.-backed peace plan.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi told Syria TV that United Nations-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan had acknowledged the government’s right to respond to armed violence. Makdissi said that handling this was a Syrian matter.

He said Syria would cooperate with the United Nations to “remove any excuses” for further international pressure.

“The battle to topple the state is over. Our goal now is to ensure stability and create a perspective for reform and development in Syria while preventing others from sabotaging the path of reform,” Makdissi told the state news channel late on Friday.

He said Syria’s conditions on its acceptance of Annan’s proposals included recognition of the government’s sovereignty and its right to security.

“The other requirement is not to harm Syrian stability … When security can be maintained for civilians, the army will leave. It is not waiting for Kofi Annan to leave, this is a Syrian matter.”
(..)

#388 Jad said:
“…is only interested in cut&paste the long name list they asked him to do without even knowing what he is putting.”

It seems you know a bit about that – and those you know best are instantly given around 30 or so green thumbs up by their team mates regardless of the junk they cutpaste (for great examples see the first 10 posts in this thread).

Of course, we understand, it’s unfair to enter their special distraction faction territory on SC.

Antoine, to support what you have been posting, this excellent extract from Maher Hakim’s blog:

“The die-hard supporters of the regime are its true base for power and strength as they control the most important aspects of “money” and “power” in the society: the security services, the business elite and many in the merchant class, the army generals, the diplomats, the media executives, etc. These people have traditionally benefited, both financially and in acquiring societal status, from aligning themselves with the regime and are afraid of what will happen to their privileges if the regime falls. This group is the reason why true reforms have not been possible to implement in Syria over the past decade, and it is both the regime’s strength and it’s biggest liability. Most of the violence perpetrated today inside Syria against the rebels and demonstrators is financed and executed by this group of loyalists.

It is worth noting that at the beginning of the Syrian revolt, people demonstrated against this group, and not necessarily against the president. And as it became apparent that the president is siding with the group against the demonstrators; the revolt turned against the president himself.”

I ask you again to please NOT personalize debate in this way. It tends to poison the ground of discussion and can provoke escalation. ]

It’s not my problem that people don’t like khaldoun’s comments.

Have you noticed that not even one of your comments have any substance or any information or an idea or a point to be discussed or even to stop at, all of them are either whining or supporting freakish comments, nothing else.

[Jad, please do not address other commentators by ugly allusion or direct insult. Use other commentators screen names if in doubt. Personal insults are not welcome at Syria Comment. ]

They are only sensetive when you write the word ‘whiner’ then they are quick to delete other than that it’s ok to be sectarian, calling for killing others and burning banks, and celebrate ‘fires’
Welcome to SC!

[Psychonaut, this comment appears to be posted using the same SC identity as the permanently-banned Syrian Commando. There are no restrictions on posting under the original name, and no need to alter your screen name; I caution Psychonaut/Commando to observe the rules against personal attack and discriminatory language. If comments are not reasonably civil, then comments will be edited or preserved in the Trash file. ]

Very classy Dr. Landis, allowing users to publish a death list on your website.

Kurds will never put their eggs in a Turkish or MB baskets.Turkey is losing its teeth and woul have
To have bridges in its mouth after being boxed on their face by Iran,Russia,china,Iraq ,Kurds and Syria .GCC billions had created a disaster foreign
Policy to Turkey which is difficult to fix.
ونقلت صحيفة “حرييت” التركية عن ممثل الحزب الكردي سعيد الدين مولا إسماعيل قوله “إن أنقرة سمحت لنا بالاشتراك ضمن المجلس الوطني السوري رافضة تدخل أي وساطة بالموضوع”.

The two only borders for heavy weapon transit to help the armed gangs are Turkey and Jordan. Iraq and Lebanon are no players.
Turkey will surely refuse to do it.
If Jordan would yield to KSA pressure, Syria will either mine the border or the Syrian Air Force will enter into action to destroy any heavy weapon entering the country and that will provoke a military escalation with Jordan: a recipe for a regional disaster.
============
Good reply..thanx
irritated/I was thinking by boat to Tripoli-east of the Mediterranean then into syria by land,you know

Tripoli is considered as the traditional bastion of conservative Sunnis in Lebanon.
irritated/ give me a billion $,I assure you african elephante in a 40 foot container at your front door,tough but doable

[Jad, please do not make personal attacks on other commentators. This is expressly against the Syria Comment Rules and Regulations. I caution Omen also to understand the margins of provocation and escalation.

Several comments are in the Trash file, and several have had to be edited. I urge all of the commentators here to self-moderate. Calling commentators scum, jackasses, idiots, terrorists, menhebek or worse does not contribute to discussion.

Kurds hate Turkey and MB.The demonstrations in Alhassaka has been just cosmetic and artificial and رفع عتب.Turkey has killed around 50000 Kurds .SNC and MB are stupid by attaching themselves to Turkey . Kurds will be بيضة القبان

And president makers in Syria like they are in Iraq. Having a Kurdish pres in the future will not be surprising. Kurds in Syria are very pro-PKK and Turkey will regret Assad’s days in the future.

In a democratic Syrian parliament in the near future the 50/50 equation will be like this:

Alawis+Christians+Druz+Kurds +20-30%of Sunnis (at least)//Against MB and Salafis.
Who do think is going to Winn then?

The answer is very clear that is why SNC don’t want to play the democracy game
They want to hijack or have it as Monopoly.

No body is crazy about the kill list, it’s simply wrong to put a hitlist on a respected site, I guess you’ve been on 3ar3ouri sites too long you have no clue how to differentiate between right and wrong.

“In a speech to the forum, Clinton stressed Washington’s “rock solid and unwavering” commitment to the security of the Sunni Muslim-led Gulf Arab monarchies, which are wary of non-Arab Shiite Muslim Iran.”

That is ‘disgusting’! is Clinton a sectarian thug now? How could an American official speaks such horrific sectarian language?

Look more closely and the sectarian language appears to be on the part of the AFP reporter or editor. I haven’t seen the full text of the speech by Mrs. Clinton but I strongly doubt a sober Secretary of State would speak in such a way even if she had such thoughts, which I don’t know.

moderator, it’s not my habit to call fellow posters names. a review of my remarks would demonstrate that. i know that doesn’t help to advance my argument. i called bashar assad a jackass ONCE but i didn’t intend on making a habit of it. as far as im concerned that term is reserved for him.

who knew jad would be so unraveled by it? that’s his problem, not mine.

any namecalling he directs towards me, i wear as a badge of honor. it’s good to know when i’ve hit a nerve.

The Russian Naval Base In Tartus Syria,is there to help the host country,they are not there as a Good Luck charm but a careful thoughtful(strategery)by the regime according to:George W.Bush

tell me please! you slept from 1970 and now woke up? The Russian Federation as the super country is the guarantor of stability of different regions including the East of the Mediterranean Sea! often the USA addresses to Russia for to help with mediation whether North Korea whether with Iran whether with Syria! Russia not when didn’t lag behind in assistance in an outcome of difficult questions of flashpoints! can read about a positive role of Russia in documents of the United Nations! that is necessary to you? to look for guilty in the failure?

US and Saudis step-up regime change rhetoric in Syriahttp://rt.com/news/clinton-syria-riyadh-intervention-910/
US secretary of State Hilary Clinton was in Saudi Arabia to discuss the hitherto unresolved conflict in Syria. The long-term allies both advocate the removal of President Assad and seek a united strategy ahead of Sunday’s ‘Friends of Syria’ summit.
The US wants to unify the rebels and lobby for humanitarian aid, but Saudi Arabia’s more aggressive stance calls for military action.
Clinton met with King Abdullah and a number of other high-ranking Saudi officials behind closed doors on Friday with a view to “stopping the bloodbath in Syria”./…./…

What if Syrians decided to arm the Saudi insurgents? the Turkish? Jordanian? etc.
Why the Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs decided (good) to do to Syrians adding gasoline in fire? that Syrians more among themselves were at war? and another’s hands to transfer the weapon то inside Syria !if this mercy tell please!

This is the second time that I remember seeing assassination lists published on SC. In every case of regime change in third world countries a lot of army/security and political leaders from the previous regime get arrested , killed or forced to leave the country. Allowing those lists to be posted on SC is a mistake, the moderator was wrong when he let that happen. We need to hold people accountable in courts with fair trials and not pick and choose our next targets, that is what thugs do.

Another low point for some bloggers and this site.

Vengeance and justice are not the same thing except in the minds of vindictive and hateful people, no country will advance with this mentality especially when the rights of the accused are largely ignored, we all agree on the rights of the victims to see justice, but street justice is a form of terrorism, and incitement of violence is a crime in most countries, stay away from this behavior, guys, the Internet is not as safe as you think.

ghufran, video after video has been posted demonstrating syrians mercilessly slaughtered by the regime – only merits a yawn from you. but merely list the people responsible and it’s “oh, my god that’s going over the line!”

antoine wasn’t calling for them to be killed, he was calling for accountability. who hasn’t called for the regime to be tried at the international criminal court?

Bassam Al Kadi appeared in an Radio show of Sham FM. I reckon that he calls the regime what it is : criminal. Unfortunately he is drawing the wrong conclusions, in an ideal world you can take your stand in between both sides, but in the face of murder, torture and nationwide crimes against humanity, i do not know where my fellow is taking his idealism to call the regime to implement real change.

I am sorry but I think Basam al Kaddi is nothing but a shabeeh umber disguise, the worst kind of shabeeha. This is not to say that all anti-revolution are shabeeha in my views. I hold deep respect and sometimes affection to some genuine few. Basam al Kaddi however deserves nothing but contempt for his views.

I certainly disagree with the excuses given for posting those lists, it will ,and always was, be used to justify violence and assassinations,.
كلمة حق اريد بها باطل
both the regime and certain elements in the opposition have little respect for the rule of law, and most Syrians who lost their lives did so without a legal justification. The A list is another chapter in that dirty game of killing and counter killing, SC should stay above that.

The list should be exposed as long as it does not call for street justice. It is one way of deterrence. What I see worse is some bloggers here calling for cleansing and disinfecting the revolutionists or the FSA. Let’s not use the justice of the powerful please.

I know him a bit, and its too easy to label someone. I admired him for some true and honest words back when others not dared to speak out. I dont know why he calls Al Dunja and state tv liars but some of his texts sounds like written by them and not by the independant thinker i know. You know rumors spread always faster than good deeds, especially in Damascus.

Jihadists Declare Holy War Against Assad Regime
By Ulrike Putz in Beiruthttp://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,824875,00.html
Abu Rami hails from Lebanon, but his heart is in Syria these days. The 40-year-old is one of hundreds of Arabs who are fighting against the Assad regime at the side of Syrian insurgents. Many of these volunteer fighters are veterans of the Iraq war, who have now brought their holy war to Syria./…/..

“Syria’s bloodbath is carving further divisions in Lebanon as President Bashar al-Assad’s Lebanese allies and enemies shout more and more insults at each other. The Christians have even divided among themselves, the old Phalangist leadership calling for Assad’s overthrow while the Catholic Maronite church performs its old role of fence-sitting on behalf of Syria’s minority Christians.”

You are right. It is easy to label someone. I am only judging his writings. Never heard of him before “being on staff” at SC. His “true and honest words when no one dared to speak” just reminds me with Duraid Laham’s ” honest and daring” words during his theatrical plays. Dictatorship allows a certain level of harmless “honest and daring” words for venting purpose. It is called selective “controlled” freedom of speech.

Can you give a list of foreign and Syrian people you feel responsible for the violence and the massacres in Syria and that you think should be tried for genocide against the Syrian people, i would like to see such list.

Erdogan’s position, “if Assad wins the elections, Turkey will not have any problems with him”, is contrary to the position of the Syrian opposition elements who seek unconstitutional overthrow and who refuse to compete in elections against Assad’s party, you know.

Erdogan’s statement that “if Bashar al-Assad is confident about his regime, he should allow the formation of new political parties” is an absurdity. If you don’t know why it’s an absurdity, say so and I’ll copy-and-paste the details. The summary of why it’s absurd is that Syrian law allows the formation of new political parties with no restrictions, except for truly trivial restrictions, and except for the restriction that religious and tribal parties are banned — but the bans on religious and tribal parties are endorsed by the generality of the whole population. The Sunni clerical leadership plus the generality of Sunni clerics in Syria, plus the clerical leadership of all the minority sects, as well as the generality of the whole population, endorses the ban on religious parties. And the tribal organizations have not gone on record objecting to the ban on tribal political parties.

“If Assad’s party wins the parliamentary elections on 7 May 2012, Erdogan’s government will have no problems with him” once Erdogan’s government gets educated on the fact that the 7 May elections will be free and fair elections.

Erdogan is stupid enough not to know that religious and ethnic parties are banned in Turkey too, what i do not know is , why doesn’t he call for the opposition to join the process with international monitors.

Here’s a litany of evidence that Syria’s tribal organizations do not object to the ban on tribally-based political parties in parliamentary and local council elections. I take all this information from SANA, except for the last paragraph. The last paragraph is my own.

15 Dec 2011. Tribal Leaders in Eastern Syria (Deir Ezzor, Hasaka and Raqqa provinces) gathered at a large meeting hall in Deir Ezzor on 15 Dec 2011. In a statement issued at the conclusion of the meeting, the tribal leaders condemned the Arab League’s actions against Syria. They said the comprehensive reform program led by President Bashar al-Assad is the sole exit pathway from the current political unrest in Syria. They underlined the importance of putting into effect the reform decrees and decisions. They called for comprehensive national engagement in the responsibility to build the country. The Syrian people look forward to an expansion of democracy that genuinely reflects the Syrian values and ethics, and not an imported European model, they said. They proclaimed their adherence to the spirit of national unity. http://www.sana.sy/eng/21/2011/12/16/388593.htm . Update 22 dec 2011: Bashar Assad meets with these eastern tribal leaders and expresses his appreciation to the tribal leaders for helping to build the country. sana.sy/eng/337/2011/12/22/389990.htm

8 Jan 2012: Various clan elders met in Aleppo and made the same type of statements as were made in Deir Ezzor on 15 Dec 2011. The Lebanese news reporter and commentator Nasser Qandil attended, and interpreted the proceedings as a message that Syrian clans support their State’s leadership. Another attendee was Omar Osi, head of the pro-regime “National Initiative of Syrian Kurds”. http://www.sana.sy/eng/21/2012/01/08/393110.htm

29, 30 and 31 jan 2012. A pro-regime tribal conference was held in Raqqa city on Monday and Tuesday 30 and 31 jan 2012. Anticipatory reportage about it was aired on Syrian State TV on 29 Jan, sana.sy/eng/21/2012/01/29/397357.htm . On 30 jan 2012 the participants in the forum stressed adherence to national unity and rejection of foreign interference and sedition attempts, emphasizing support for the comprehensive reform program and dialogue under the leadership of President Bashar al-Assad. They decried the acts of killings and vandalism perpetrated by armed terrorist groups, and they called for striking with an iron fist those who tamper with the homeland’s security and stability. The also endorsed calls for launching national reconciliation dialog that helps stop bloodshed. Participants in the conference underscored the importance of bolstering national unity among the Syrian people against foreign-supported subversives. They expressed trust that the political and media campaigns against Syria, led by the colonial West and the Arab reactionary powers, won’t weaken Syria’s steadfastness thanks to the awareness and faith of the Syrian people. sana.sy/eng/21/2012/01/30/397532.htm

31 jan 2012. Second day of the 2-day tribal gathering in Raqqa. Concluding statement condemns internal violence, condemns foreign interference, condemns Arab League, supports President Assad’s leadership, supports dialog and mediation between State and Opposition, supports continuation of reforms. Affirmed that the unjust economic siege imposed on Syria by foreign countries doesn’t faze the Syrian people. A supplementary statement directly addressed to the UN Secretary General and the Arab League Secretary General said that the clans and tribes of Syria utterly reject foreign interference. sana.sy/eng/21/2012/01/31/397670.htm . Addounia TV footage from the meeting: youtube.com/watch?v=ZukIOZgfCjc

9 feb 2012. A large delegation of Iraqi tribal and clan leaders had a meeting with Syria’s Information Minister in Damascus and expressed the same political view as the Syrian tribal leaders had expressed in Raqqa on 30 and 31 January. Some Iraqi tribal leaders had been among the participants in the tribal gathering in Raqqa. sana.sy/eng/337/2012/02/09/399563.htm

13 feb 2012. Syrian and Iraqi tribal leaders had a tent meeting in Al-Hasaka city with the participation of Islamic and Christian clergymen. They called on the national opposition to participate in the reform process. sana.sy/eng/337/2012/02/13/400342.htm

15 feb 2012. Leaders of a number of tribes located in Aleppo province held a forum in Damascus and issued a concluding statement in support of the Syrian army. “We are all one tribe in the face of the saboteurs and the conspirators,” said the statement. sana.sy/eng/21/2012/02/16/400839.htm

MEANWHILE I’m unaware of any tribal gatherings to voice opposition to the regime anywhere on the ground in Syria. The Syrian National Council in Istanbul contains a number of individuals who claim to represent tribes in Syria. But on the ground in Syria there is no evidence of tribal organizations, as such, opposing the regime.

In any other country hijacking people and torturing them is a crime which is punished for by decades
Behind bars except in Syria where the (free world)
Is incoraging such crimes Islamists dark bats even against Syrian Christians .The(free world )is only caring about $ :

Undergunned and Overwhelmed
Syria’s rebels have to bear hours of negotiations for every box of bullets that they haul across the border for their war against Bashar al-Assad. And their frustration is starting to show.

BY RANIA ABOUZEID | MARCH 30, 2012ANTAKYA, Turkey —

“Fouad,” a rail-thin Syrian in tight jeans who looks at least a decade older than his 25 years, leans forward in a black faux leather armchair in an unheated, sparsely furnished room in this southern Turkish city.

“I need ammunition,” he tells Abu Mohammad, a stocky Turkish weapons dealer sitting impossibly upright on the stiff couch. “I’ll pay five and a half.” He quotes the price in Turkish liras — about $3 per bullet.
Abu Mohammad smirks. He carefully places his white, half-moon Turkish coffee cup on the small square table in front of him. “They’re seven each,” he says. “If you can get them for five and a half, I’ll buy them from you.”

Fouad shakes his head, takes another draw from his cigarette, and slowly capitulates on the price, but not before complaining that a bullet cost three lira about a month ago. “Just get them,” he finally says. “And what about weapons? I heard there’s a stockpile of 4,000 bullets and lots of guns, but it’s near an Alawite village [in southern Turkey].”

Abu Mohammad confirms the information, but says that it will be difficult to clandestinely buy any of the Turkish military supplies, and harder still to discretely ferry them out of the village, inhabited by Turkish co-religionists and assumed sympathizers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

the u.s. police force has escalated a wee bit in roughing up peaceful protesters of late, but i am pretty damn sure the government wouldn’t retaliate by indiscriminately pounding tank fire, mortar shells and katyusha rockets into civilian neighborhoods!

Omen
The US knows all the crap and garbage inside this
Terrorist movement .It is a De ja vu from what the
US has delt with in Iraq.All what the US want is to
Dissociate Syria from Iran.In the US if you throw
Your sigarett from your car you will be fined 300$.
If you do what was in the clip you will be behind bars for many counts which you can figure .In Syria this should be counted as peaceful demonstration !!

I forgot to mention that Kurdish political parties are banned in Syria under the new Elections and Parties laws enacted last August.

Kurdish parties are not banned in Syria’s new Constitution. Article 8 of the Constitution says: “No political activity shall be practiced nor political party or group formed on a religious, sectarian, tribal, regional, or professional basis or according to discrimination because of sex, origin, race, or color.” The Parties and Elections laws have all those plus ethnic: “elections campaigns should not include any racial, sectarian, ethnic or tribal indications”.

In my opinion, this fifth option is not longer realistic. Again it has less to do with the regime’s intentions and more with its ability to execute. For the regime to succeed in this “fifth” option, it needs to have a broad-base trust and support – BOTH internally and externally, something that I believe it lacks today.

I honestly have no clue why that comment got so much thumbs down, to be honest I find it funny, since I don’t understand what’s so provocative in it that it deserve such high record rating.

I also have no problem with Majed whatsoever, yes I attack him and get annoyed with what he writes most of the times because of his sectarian comments but I have no hard feeling whatsoever toward him or toward anybody else on SC, I’m just very surprised that someone like Majed who used to be very respectful and careful not to hurt other people’s feeling to write some of the worst sectarian comments lately.

I have couple issues with comments lately which makes me sound either silly or rude:
Sectarianism, I don’t care what is the religion or sect or belief or non-belief of anybody as long as they are respectful to other people’s religion and sects and write within the political views/debate and not to be provocative about blaming someone being inhumane and immoral just because he belongs to a certain religion/sect.

I support secularism and I find it too hard for me to stay quite when I read comments like KT or others with the worst discrimination langue available against sects and religious.

I also have big issues with hate and ill wishes toward Syria and Syrians in any way especially coming from non-Syrians.

That I found the worst, and again, I really can’t stop not to reply in the same manner and sometimes even worse to show that person that he/she crossed the line.

We can be against political parties and criminals and brutality and terrorism, but we should always keep it in the perspective and not to wish ill to every person in Syria just because we disagree with the criminals on the top, that is wrong.

The third thing I also worry about is that through our disagreement we are either forgetting the radical terrorists, covering their crimes and avoiding the reality that those criminals are actually using people’s cause for their own agenda and this is why I keep pointing out the existence of radical groups inside the movement that we should never agree with or be quite about, if we do they will take over our country and turn it into a worse hell than it is right now.

I do understand your frustration with me Syrialover, I really do, and I may agree with you on my short temper and rudeness toward others, but to be honest, this is really tough times for all of us, and if we can’t show others the seriousness of the situation and reality of both sides regardless how painful and horrible it may sound, we are going to loose touch with what’s really happening in our homeland and if we decided to keep reading one side, we will become radicalized in our own world without even noticing.

I do appreciate SC for bringing almost all sides together, I do appreciate the cut&paste related comments, articles, stories and opinions, they all help most of us to stay sane and aware of the other side, not everybody though, but just enough.

I used to read 7ee6an every day until last month when I noticed that it is a total one sided world, that people their don’t even realize the reality anymore, they radicalized themselves on purpose, you can tell from the last couple comments of Sheila that she become unable to understand that there is another world outside hers on 7ee6an where people actually have different views, so I stopped going there that often and decided to stay on SC and to go through this struggle regardless how much I’ll attack or get attacked or get mad or hated, instead of leaving and stay in the back seat while others speaks on my behalf. No, I’m staying here, and I’ll keep writing and cut&pat and chat and make jokes and curse…Sorry SCM.

Syrialover, please understand that we have our beloved families and friends are still under fire in Syria, they are targets to every devil in Syria and we MUST defend them in every way possible, they are living in a big prison, made not only by the regime but also by every ‘humane’ European and American and kahliji hypocrites using Syrians’ suffering for their own agendas and those ‘humane’ powers wont stop until they break the Syrian man in all of us, as they did to Lebanon and Iraq before us.

I will feel that I’m betraying them if I let them down and I will keep trying to show their views to whoever is reading SC. Syria crisis is way bigger than all of us and it’s very much twisted in the media to fill the big powers agenda, not what is really happening, I think that we all are writing history the way we are seeing not the way they want to write it.

I’m not sorry at all for any bad word I wrote against any body on SC because I know that they deserve it and either if it was deleted or not, that doesn’t matter, I made my point clear and I’ll keep doing and reacting in the same manners as long as they repeat their provocations.

God bless Syria and Syrians every day and protect them from all harms…Oul ameen 🙂

BEIRUT — Syria rejected international envoy Kofi Annan’s call for the regime to halt violence first just days after the government agreed to a cease-fire plan. A senior official declared victory over the opposition.

I chose option #4. As I state in my blog, I believe this is the best long-term outcome for Syria. Easy for me to say though: I am not interested in ideology or religion, and I have not personally suffered like many have.

“I’m unaware of any tribal gatherings to voice opposition to the regime anywhere on the ground in Syria. The Syrian National Council in Istanbul contains a number of individuals who claim to represent tribes in Syria. But on the ground in Syria there is no evidence of tribal organizations, as such, opposing the regime.”

Well Sana isn’t going to report it.

But I have seen fragmented things about tribal community leaders accused and punished as a warning. Others here might have the references. It’s happened, and is sure to be documented and revealed when the terrible toll is added up.

Why play at being naive about the bloody and terrible price which will be paid on the ground if any tribal groups persisted in announcing opposition to the regime?

@ #480: There are thousands of videos of protests against the regime, of which I’ve personally seen hundreds, and I’ve never come across a video of a tribally organized protest. The right to protest is explicitly guaranteed in the Syrian Constitution and the senior spokespeople of the regime have said again and again that peaceful protest is respectable. There is no reason why we wouldn’t’ve seen tribal assemblies against the regime by now if a majority of the individuals with a certain tribal alliegance wanted “Down with the System” politics.

“damn, that was frustrating to read. where are the wealthy expat syrians willing to fund operations? surely snc could lobby such people.”

It is frustrating to read, but sheds light on more exaggerations by the regime or out right lies. If rebels are low on ammo and are counting every bullet it would defeat their purpose to indiscriminately fire at civilians and civilian targets as the regime is trying to make everyone believe (since they need every bullet to defend themselves). It also expands on the lack of wholesale arming of the rebels from the GCC (and western nations) as some commentators here keep proclaiming is the undeniable truth.

Personally I don’t see an armed rebellion as the way to take down this regime, but at the same time I can’t in good faith say that someone cannot defend his family against state sanctioned criminality and barbarity.

I don’t ever expect Bashar to step down (As in Tunisia and Egypt), that decision should not be left for him to make because he won’t ever make it, the authority must be stripped away from him. The revolution won’t be won in Idlib or Homs, Dier Ezzor or Dara’a, it will be won in Damascus and Aleppo and if those two foundations are stripped from the regime they won’t have the authority nor the legitimacy to call themselves our representatives and won’t be able to further deiced our fate.

The biggest failure of the SNC in my eyes is not their inner squabbling, but their lack of appeal to the minorities in Syria. For the minority protection is one of the lies that the regime is trumpeting as its greatest achievement (that and the so-called resistance) and is an integral part of their survival, the Alawites, Christians, and Kurds need to be part of this revolution in large numbers, and so far the SNC has not done enough to appeal to them, to make them all join (especially the Alawites).

While I find what you wrote to be very informative and well written, may I ask you to add another option in the poll you are conducting.

I would have voted for number 4 but I don’t ever believe that Bashar and Co. will ever agree to hand over their power, if you may can you add a non military option of forcing Bashar and Co. out as an option?

The Syrian National Council consists predominantly of émigrés in the West. A French diplomat opines: “The leaders of the SNC excel in the West, because they speak our language, and tell us what we want to hear. But they are increasingly disconnected from the reality on the ground. The perception of the Syrians inside Syria is very negative regarding the SNC. Syrians are likely to agree that the SNC leaders do not represent them. The SNC leaders only show themselves before the TV cameras in foreign hotels, they bring us nothing, they say…. We in France are still in favor of “Down With The System” in Syria. We did not realize this was not feasible. On the other hand, what can we do now? We adopted a hardline position early on that we cannot now change. We are condemned to camp in alignment with the hardline SNC.” http://friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com/

I disagree with that opinion. The calls for “Down with the System” in Syria have been equally as blind and futile as similar calls coming year after year from fringe elements in politics in the Western countries. If the French “diplomats” would now come around to appreciating the truth, there’s no good honest reason for them to not just say they were wrong, they made a mistake about a foreign country whose political culture they didn’t understand, they’re sorry, they won’t be so arrogant in future, etc., etc. Personally I think I’m capable of forgiving the foreign “diplomats” for their bigotry, though I’ll never forgive the foreign news media for as long as I live.

I do not do lists and I am not qualified to sentence somebody to death or even suggest that he or she must die. A credible court with lawyers for both sides is the civilized way to prosecute crimes but that may never happen in Syria. Street justice and tribal revenge seem to be more palatable to many Syrians nowadays.

Criticizing some sections of the opposition does not mean supporting the regime,one of my biggest disappoinments with this uprising is the violent and sectarian route it took,that route is prolonging the life of the regime and dividing Syrians.

Bronco, Zoo, Mawal,
What do you think of this move by the Sultan’s army, the Syrian refugees were taken to the new camp to be evacuated the next day? Strange!
الفقاعة اوردغان يطرد اللاجئين من المخيمات بالقوةhttp://youtu.be/dC953dFFfnU

At the end of my blog post, I explain how option #4 might be accomplished. I admit that it is a long shot, but I am an optimist by nature. It is realistic to expect that, with enough pressure AND with guarantees of safe and face-saving exit, the world *maybe* able to convince the regime to step aside.

I would be happy to add the option of a non-military option to “force” Bashar out of power, if you can help me understand how this might be accomplished!

@ JAD #488: By now I’ve seen many videos like that, and I often wonder what the guys in those types of videos are shooting at. More often than not, they seem to me to be shooting to create civil disturbance and destroy law and order; whereas they don’t seem to be in an actual firefight with army targets.

I don’t think that the government will do number 4 in this volatile situation, it’s suicidal.

While I do understand your explanation to Bronco’s fifth choice, I think that his option to be more workable than number 4 at the moment.

“- The regime stays on its current course of ensuring security in the whole country by disarming armed gangs and negotiating with rebels for a full ceasefire under the UN umbrella, allowing legal demonstrations under observers surveillance, allowing a certain level of freedom of speech, introducing political reforms and planning for elections””http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/?p=14166&cp=all#comment-304437

This is why I put it under ‘Hollywood’ category, it’s obvious that no body is firing back at them, and that they are shooting for disturbance nothing more, yet they play poor and that they don’t have bullets and weapons.

@ JAD #489: I read today that officials in Turkey say Turkey has 18,158 Syrian refugees, of whom 9,186 stay in Hatay province, 6,188 in the adjacent Kilis province, and 2,731 in the adjacent Gaziantep province. Thus, none of the refugees are being located in any other provinces in Turkey, including none in Şanlıurfa, Mardin and Şırnak provinces along the Syrian border. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-03/31/c_131501595.htm . Thus, Turkey, for some reason or no reason, has a policy of locating the refugees in one limited area in Turkey.

“I wonder how would you react when we celebrate if something get burned and people get killed in your city”

You’re seeing right here on this forum how I react.

With anger and disgust and nausea at those here who don’t stop at just celebrating at burning and killing, they chant ugly stupid lies and insults about it.

Like others here I have to be careful. I am living in shock and 24/7 anxiety at how my [ and ] are suffering, stranded inside in hell, and worry what will be left for the future. I want to finish my nightmare where I can’t go in and they can’t come out. One side of me is relieved we can struggle and find money for mukhrabat ransoms and protection and exile, but the other side is very frustrated this money is not sent to homeless, and hungry Syrians forced to run for their lives from their own “leaders”.

That is why I am repulsed by posters who systematically sneer and mock at all Syrians who suffer so much and have their lives destroyed by Assad regime thugs, idiotically calling all victims and anyone who stands with them as al-quaeda, pawns of foreigners and other garbage.

It’s creepy those posting here who have no stake in Syria or detectable agenda except to squawk hatred at the west. Interestingly, this puts them on the same team as the real al qaeda (not the phantom joke one they talk about).

Of course, that is the best Mr. Baker can say at this point:0)He still live in the 1980’s mentality. Who gives Mr. Baker or any American politician the legal right to legitimize any leader in the world!? Wise up! Syria and President Bashar Alassad have prevailed due to his integrity, and the support of the majority of his people. How does Mr. Baker know that president Bashar Alassad killed his people? Unless he was there watching in his own eyes! Otherwise, his statement is not credible and not trustworthy at this point.

Many are wondering why the silent majority are still silent, I am one of the majority and I can say about myself is that I will stay silent because I don’t like what I see from both sides, what we needed in Syria is an upgrade of the system we have and it seems that we are getting a downgrade, I believe what Syria was missing was the rule of law and what the revolution gave us was the complete break down of law and order.

Last year I posted a comment with a sad face that the tourist season is lost in Syria and that is going to affect the lively hood of a lot of people, little I knew that some people are planning for the whole of Syria to be lost

The two scenarios call for a “transitional” period where security is established, demonstrations are allowed, and preparations for national elections are underway.

In option #4 listed in my blog post, the Syrian opposition, backed by the Arabs and many in the world, will be able to convince the regime to agree to step aside and allow a transitional government to form and lead the process, while guaranteeing the regime’s safety, face saving, and even the opportunity to participate in future elections. This is far from a suicidal proposition if presented and implemented correctly.

In Bronco’s proposed option #5, the Syrian regime will be able to convince the opposition, the Arabs, and many in the world that it has the credibility and ability to lead such transition (of course the regime can push forward with this without buy-in, but this is exactly what it has been doing in the past 12 months, with no success).

Which scenario has a better chance of going through? I think option #4 has the better chance.

Ambassador to Syria, three American hikers held hostage in Iran speak at Amnesty meeting
UPDATED: 03/31/2012 03:35:21 PM MDT By Kristen Leigh Painter
The Denver Post
….
Ford, a longtime supporter of the human rights organization Amnesty International, acknowledged that both the Syrian government and the opposition have been guilty of violence.

“But the great majority of those 9,000 dead are civilians killed in government assaults, bombardments, and detention,” Ford said.
….
In 2009, three young Americans who were hiking in Northern Iraq’s Kurdistan region were captured by Iranian troops near the unmarked national border. Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer, and Josh Fattal spoke on Saturday just six months after the two men were released.

“The reason for being here at Amnesty is to advocate for other people who are still locked up,” Fattal said. “Our case was political, and with with politics ramping up between the two countries, we believe war would be catastrophic for the people of Iran.”

Shroud was released before the other two, but spent the entire 13 and a half months of her captivity in solitary confinement, a practice she says is torture and advocates against.

“There needs to be a regime change, but the change needs to be homegrown,” Shourd said. “We can support them from here. There is a huge human rights movement there that has been pushed underground.”
(…)

“I would be happy to add the option of a non-military option to “force” Bashar out of power, if you can help me understand how this might be accomplished!”

I am a big fan of the non violent movements, and have been tremendously influenced by the likes of Thoreau, Gandhi, and Gene Sharp’s writings. So my political ‘solution’ would be based on civil disobedience that forces the very foundations that secure the power of the regime to switch side and help develop a democratic future for Syria.

The regime is doing its best currently to prevent a Tahrir square moment (or the repeat of Clock Square in Homs, and Hama pre Ramadan) in its two most important cities, Aleppo and Damascus. If these two heavy weight giants wake up and come out in numbers (along with the rest of the country) and maintain the pressure needed, Bashar and Co. won’t have a chance to counter it.

The key is figuring out a way for the people to come out in numbers in a way to help safe guard the lives of the protesters, for so far whenever they come out in numbers the regimes response has been to mow them down.

In order to accomplish that in my opinion the opposition needs to unite all the different Syrian factions, appeal to the minorities and guarantee their individual rights, categorically state that they want the fall of the regime and not the State, help alleviate the fears of retribution or revenge killings (especially towards the Alawite community) and come up with a truth and reconciliation project that is fair and a testament to the backing our Judicial system so deservedly needs.

The only safe way out from this crisis won’t ever come from this regime, for they are the main culprits of the violence and bloodshed, it will come when the overwhelming majority of Syrians come out in such numbers that a military option would be rendered useless.

One of the most violent and brutal dictators of the 90’s was forced out the very same way, and Serbia is much better off today than when Milosevic was forced out in September of 2000.

Activist Ali Othman who is a citizen journalist from Homs who has helped broadcast countless Assadist crimes has been detained by the Syrian regime, he is a true Syrian hero that his crime is exposing the lies and hypocrisy of this regime, and now he is in the torturer’s chamber.

If exposing the Assadist barbarity is a crime, how can we ever expect them to reform?

Paul Conroy speaks to CNN about Ali Othman, one of the heroes that risked their lives to save his.

gandhi didn’t liberate india all by himself. at the same time, as he was preaching non-violence and doing civil resistance, there were rebel resistance groups, running around doing guerilla tactics, blowing things up and killing british soldiers.

what freed india was a pincher approach. on one side was nonviolent protest which applied certain pressure. on the other side was armed rebellion, also applying pressure. the british got squeezed out.

i don’t know why the option being offered is a limited choice, that it has to be one or the other. an all of the above approach is what is needed. use every tool available. something andrew tabler effectively advocates here.

I don’t know if what you wrote in #502 is aimed at me, if it is let me clarify myself.

I am well aware that Gandhi was not alone in liberating India, I would even add to that Nelson Mandela advocated the very same thing Andrew Tabler mentions.

However in India and South Africa you never had a wholesale arming of the opposition, because the opposition realized that confronting the regime militarily would be counter productive and at best you end up replacing one Junta with another Junta if you happen to succeed (Cuba is a good example) at worst the armed rebellion gets mercilessly crushed and the civilians pay the heaviest toll.

So the importance of civil disobedience and non violent movement is paramount and should not be excluded as a solution for bringing an end to this barbarity.

Thank you for your explanation and I am truly inspired by your thoughts and you commitment to non-violence.

I have to admit that I still cannot see how the regime could be *forced” out with non-violent demonstrations. You state that the reason people have not come out in large numbers is that the regime’s response has been to “mow them down”. If indeed that is the case, then what will make the regime stop doing it and what will make the people feel safe to go out in numbers again? How would all the things that you ask the opposition to do (being united, appeal to all factions, etc.) MAKE the regime stop shooting at demonstrators?

Milosevic and Mubarak were forced out *because* their armies turned against them. Do you believe that there is a chance that the Syrian army can/will *peacefully* turn against the Syrian regime?

One year later and the winners are Russia, China, Iran, Israel.
ok then let’s rephrase the sentence, the loser after one years is the Innocent Syrians.
The criminals are the KSA,West, USA and the rest of GCC.
The one who deserves a medal is Iraq, it stood by the side of Syria in spite of all the pressures.
It is clear that Assad is finishing the 2012 and Obama/Sharkosy, may not continue beyond the 2012
I said Syria is a red tape for Russia, everyone understood and agreed except the dummies in GCC
even Turkey understood it is not winning the in syria.
it is not going to fall in the hands of the radicals that’s what Russia told the USA.
game over and time for a quick reorganizing the troops on both sides.
.

“Do you believe that there is a chance that the Syrian army can/will *peacefully* turn against the Syrian regime?”

Yes, and its all in the numbers that if it is well organized and sustained and most importantly in Damascus and Aleppo where “normality” is lost in the heart of those two cities would be the important catalyst that will nullify the legitimacy of this regime (In the eyes of the fence sitters, and the army)

What will be the spark that drives the people to do so. I wish I knew, but I look at Berliners tearing down the wall that separated them, I look at Georgia and Ukraine and how they inspired the world with their awakening and see that the ingredients they all had Syria has, we just need the right spark.

Day by day, The truth is coming very clear:This is Taliban Terrorists movement
With a branch of torturing ,one for excecuting(by cutting neck) and one for
Burial and hiding bodies.History will put this movement at the same chapter
Of Alqaeda ,Taliban,Boko Haram….
One profile of the Syrian opposition fighters’ tactics appeared in the English edition of Spiegel Online (Germany) under the title “The Burial Brigade of Homs: An Executioner for Syria’s Rebels Tells His Story.” The executioner gave an interview using the name “Hussein” from the Lebanese hospital where he is recovering from wounds he sustained in the battle where the rebels lost Homs. He says he’s part of the “burial brigade,” whose members slit the throats of people who “confessed” loyalty to the Assad government. How the confessions are gotten is the work of the “interrogation brigades” who “do the ugly work” of breaking the prisoners. “Hussein,” however, doesn’t torture people. “Most men can torture, but they’re not able to kill from close range,” he said. “But it doesn’t bother me. That’s why they gave me the job of executioner. It’s something for a madman like me.” He is embarrassed that he has one of the lowest kill numbers in his brigade, but says that he can’t wait till he recovers so that they can “get back to work” in Syria.
The interview was conducted by Spiegel following the recent Human Rights Watch report that described and condemned violence of a war crimes variety being carried out by the Saudi and Qatar backed terrorist forces. Yet, despite the evidence of Syrian rebel terrorism including torture and killings of childen and other civilians, bombings, and assassinations, UN envoy Kofi Annan has now demanded that President Assad “stop” the government violence before anything else—a complete violation of the UN statement that created his mission.

tripoli remained a silent majority for a long time as well. what was once considered a “gadaffi stronghold” easily fell when the rebels finally rolled into town. whereupon the residents rejoiced at their arrival. this despite the constant messaging from regime media telling them that the rebels were al qaeda!

“wage simultaneous attacks in the different parts of the country in order to stress and fracture the army.”

I don’t know if the FSA can develop such capabilities, at least not at the moment. I think the FSA should concentrate its efforts on protecting the protesters and try to avoid direct confrontation with the security service.

They keep trying to establish a Benghazi type of base of operation, but wherever they gain a foothold the civilians are loosing a mile, and at some point they have to realize that the regime won’t stop that.

I don’t want to blame the FSA for the regimes crimes, but after seeing the atrocities the regime is willing to commit in Baba Amr and Idlib, the FSA knows the tactics of the regime and the indifference of the international community, and its mode of operation should be based on knowing those two facts clearly.

And without a proper backing, training, and supplying of the FSA they will never have a chance in fracturing this regime, which is the case right now. (and I doubt it will change)

It seems that the ottoman sultan is changing his mind about the Syrian election at the same day of the enemies of Syria, strange!

Free elections in Syria can end violence, says PM Erdoğan

The solution to the current conflict in Syria between government forces and the opposition is holding free elections, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Friday, on his return flight from Iran, where he has been visiting since Tuesday.
“We talked about Syria with Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. We don’t differ in our approach toward Syria. He also wants the deaths to end,” Erdoğan said.

“A ballot box should be placed in front of the Syrian people with the correct time and conditions. Whoever the people want to see at the helm, they will be accepted. The question of who will succeed President Bashar al-Assad is moot. Whoever the people of Syria want will be in office.”

He said Iran might succeed in convincing Bashar to hold elections within six months, and Turkey can talk to the opposition.

Erdoğan said the elections should be fair, transparent and open to international monitoring. “If necessary, OSCE or regional countries can send observers. If Assad displays a positive approach, we will wait patiently, but the deaths must come to an end as quickly as possible.”

The prime minister also noted that he was optimistic that a settlement in Syria will be reached soon. “The two important developments are the idea of elections and that there is a united consensus against an intervention from outside. There can’t be a second Libya syndrome,” he told the journalists on the plane. He said there shouldn’t be any military intervention in Syria without a UN resolution.

Once again, you make no sense. I wish you would stick to a language you understand. It’s obvious English is not one of them. “Red tape” means complex and time consuming bureaucratic procedures, as in going to a Ministry office to file a complaint and the clerk has you fill out ten forms in triplicate. That’s red tape. You meant to say “red line.” A red line is an essential, non-negotiable component of a policy, as in the United States’ red line of not permitting Iran to manufacture a nuclear bomb.

UNITED NATIONS, March 31 — In the run up to Kofi Annan’s briefing of the Security Council on April 2, Syria late on March 30 wrote to the Council and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to say that nearly 6000 people have been killed in the country by “terrorists.”

This seeks to counter the numbers of civilians killed provided in briefings by High Commissioner on Human Rights Navi Pillay and outgoing head of UN Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe. Inner City Press has obtained the letter and puts it online here, before the UN has made it publicly available.

The Syrian letter states figures for killed civilians, police, army, then women and children, presumably already included in the civilian number. It also states for example that 2256 government vehicles have been stolen.

Excellency,
I have the honour to transmit herewith a detailed table on the losses incurred in the Syrian Arab Republic due to the acts committed by armed terrorist groups. The table covers the period
from the beginning of the events in Syria until 15 March 2012 and it contains the following information:

– Death toll of civilians: 3211 people.
– Death toll of police : 478 people.
– Death toll of Army and Security Forces : 2088 people ( as of 21 March 2012).
– Death toll of women : 204 people.
– Death toll of children : 56 people.
– Death toll of directly assassinated people : 106 people.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Syrians trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad meet their Western backers on Sunday while fighting has continued despite the Syrian government saying the year-long revolt is over.

The political opposition remains divided and has not yet formally accepted a peace plan brokered by United Nations-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan.

Prospects of Western-led military intervention are close to zero, although Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal renewed calls on Saturday to arm the Syrian opposition, describing it as a “duty”.

Assad, whose foreign ministry has declared that the revolt has been crushed, has said he accepts Annan’s plan but has to keep security forces in cities to maintain security.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Jihad Makdessi told Syrian State television on Friday that the troops were stationed in a capacity of “self-defense and protecting civilians.” He emphasized that security was a Syrian matter and that the UN must recognize the sovereignty of the Syrian government.

Furthermore, Makdessi said that the Syrian government was willing to cooperate with Koffi Annan’s peace plan to “remove all excuses” for possible international intervention.

“The battle to topple the state is over. Our goal now is to ensure stability and create a perspective for reform and development in Syria while preventing others from sabotaging the path of reform,” he stressed.

It is frustrating to read, but sheds light on more exaggerations by the regime or out right lies. If rebels are low on ammo and are counting every bullet it would defeat their purpose to indiscriminately fire at civilians and civilian targets as the regime is trying to make everyone believe (since they need every bullet to defend themselves). It also expands on the lack of wholesale arming of the rebels from the GCC (and western nations) as some commentators here keep proclaiming is the undeniable truth.

Mawal 486,
In the article which is the source for this, http://blog.lefigaro.fr/malbrunot/2012/03/syrie-un-diplomate-francais-me.html (which I have pasted too, yesterday or so), it is very clear that the French diplomats blindness was not due to bigotery.
It is rather a problem of a small group of “Atlantists” among them, including those at the top positions, who refuse to listen to what they are told in the reports from people on the ground, because they are here to do a certain job. Since their administration is certainly going to be ousted next month, they had to make it quick. Same problem with the EU.

“i hope the fsa can get it together enough to put into play what prof. landis advised: wage simultaneous attacks in the different parts of the country in order to stress and fracture the army.”

General Omen:

I have no idea about your military training, but, you are trying to wage a war here.

Why don’t you go and participate, we see now an influx of those non-Syrians, lost in life, wanting to vent at something coming to Syria or meddling in the Syrian affair. Syrians are paying with their lives in this conflict dear general Omen.

Being a rebel does not work while Syrians are getting killed.

Law and order in Syria has to be restored and this will never be done with logic like yours.

“chilling words when coming from this fascist regime and its apologists.”

First of all, I do not think I should bite your attempt into drawing me into your petty squabbles.

I do not think you are Syrian. I am. I lost family members in these events and see what is going on and Yes I have been calling for law and order from day one. Yes Syria wants law and order and if you are against this you are inciting violence as I have read in your comments over and over.

Yes Syria needs law and order.

By the way, I am still waiting for your answer about why you singled me out to ask me about an issue related to rape?

I see that you are not here to add any information about Syria.

labeling people is not gonna get you anywhere. So, if I do not agree with your great plan to arm the rebels I am an apologist? Huh? dude you are insane….

we can see from homs what assad considers bringing law and order. we can see from daraa the price paid for drawing words on a wall.

it wasn’t the people who drew first blood. people have a right to protest and people have a right to defend themselves. or are the majority of syrians supposed to abandon their own country and cede it all to one family?

i answered you earlier about the rape quetion. you had a post pondering charges being made against assad that questioned whether he was a true muslim or not. certainly by the practices going on in his detention center, they violate islamic principles.
i’m sorry if raising the question worried you somehow.

Mjabali go out of your minority syndrom,if you remove the Sunnis in the Muslim and Arab world what would remain ?

The Sunnis are an umma (taken as cultural or civilizational perspective), Arab and Islamic. Its normal if you only hold hatred and always looking to antagonize this civilization, you will put yourself on the margin.

Why are you lecturing me about what had happened and give me your point of view how things started? Do you really think I do not have my own opinion about how things happened in my country Syria?

This blame game is of no use. We need solutions, and if we follow what you say we have more bloodshed with no end in sight.

Now, we have ten thousands dead and counting. You are calling for more violent solutions. This is not working. Can’t you see?

As for the poll you linked to, from the option offered I voted for the last one which meant the peaceful transfer of powers and elections. Elections and political parties are what Syria needs and not arming some lunatics.

AS for the rape issue: I see no connection with me writing about how the Sunni sheikhs declared al-Assad a non-Muslim with your questioning me about my opinion about rape. how can you connect both?

I see more of a connection between declaring al-Assad as an infidel with the brutal killing of the three Syrian teachers in Deir al-Zur in the last week. Can you mr. Omen give me your thoughts about why after killing these three teachers the killers from Allah Akbar Brigade cut the arms, heads and legs of the victims?

Wrong again mr. Shami. I have no minority syndrome, you have no room for minorities in your “Umma,” and when a person like me raise real questions about what is the real future: you have no answer but to accuse me with this and that.

Shoving the minority problem under the rug is not going to solve the situation. You have to give the minorities their space.

Also, when someone critiques certain brands of Islam please come with real answer and not only labels and accusations.

Remember the minorities are the ones who made the real achievements in “your civilization” and not the Arabs.

Do you want me to list them for you? Respect the space of the minorities especially when they are from the land they live on way before any Islamic or Arabic invasion. You are calling to eradicate these minorities. Respect their space mr. Shami that is better.

Mr. Shami, Sunnis are going to stay or go is not my problem: all going to depend on how strong the foundation of that faith. Ibn Taymiayah and Abd al-Wahhab are going to stick around for many years to come, I have no doubt, and for sure they are going to be more popular with the oil money.

In my opinion: if we have real free speech in the Arab and Muslim world half of the population are going to leave religion.

439. AFRAM :
then woke up next to the best Russian Federation babushkas.
Did you know :
Grandma will be introduce to Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku
Buranovskiye Babushki – Party For Everybody (Russia) 2012 Eurovision Song Contesthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKNRGc71hjc
🙂

The nusayri beliefs will remain considered as heretical this is not going change as ours are considered heretical by them, what is important is the existence of a social contract that guarantee them their civil rights and those are the same than the other Syrians. The alawite mountains must also be more heterogenous ,the alawites who today live in the Syrian cities must take it as their definitive place, there should be no go back to the mountains.

Call of duty: Saudi Arabia bent on arming Syrian rebelshttp://rt.com/news/syrian-rebels-armed-turkey-957/
Calls to arm the Syrian rebels are growing louder, with Saudi Arabia saying that supplying weapons is a “duty.” The desire to tool up rebels comes as major Syrian opposition groups have appealed to neighboring states to allow the transit of arms.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced on Sunday that top ranking Arab and Western officials will be discussing further ways to apply pressure on President Bashar al-Assad. The promise of more humanitarian aid to the rebels was also high on the agenda.
But as her Saudi Arabian counterpart has revealed, this help might not be limited to medicine and blankets. During a joint news conference with Clinton, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said “the arming of the [Syrian] opposition is a duty, I think, because it cannot defend itself except with weapons.”…./…/…

UNITED NATIONS, March 31 (Itar-Tass) —— Russia continues to ‘closely address’ the issue of civilian casualties in Libya as a result of NATO bombardments, Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin confirmed on Friday.

“Regrettably, our Western partners in the UN Security Council have been trying to play down and hush up the affair in every way they can,” Churkin told Itar-Tass. “Last time the issue was brought up in the UN Security Council they put forward an amazing excuse to the effect it would be far better to look into the future.” The Russian diplomat said this attitude “does not hold water.” He pointed out that for the Security Council the question of civilian victims of NATO’s bombardments in Libya “is important, because the death of civilian population was a result of operations approved in this building, and the whole operation was conceived as a means to protect civilians.”

Churkin recalled that as he addressed the UN Security Council on March 12, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov demanded investigation into reports of civilian victims of bombardments in Libya and urged the UN Secretary-General to shed light on that issue, using the Declaration on UN/NATO Secretriat Cooperation, signed in 2008.

In the meantime, as UN officials have said, the UN Secretary-General has no plans for taking any steps along these lines. On Friday journalists asked the UN Secretary General’s deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey about Ban Ki-moon’s response to the North Atlantic Alliance’s refusal to cooperate with the international commission for the investigation of human rights abuse in Libya the UN Human Rights Council had created. The deputy spokesman looked confused and then said that it depended entirely on the Human Rights Council how to achieve cooperation with NATO.
NATO’s massive air campaign, launched in March 2011 against the Muamar Gaddafi regime, saw 26,000 sorties, including 10,000 attack sorties. According to official reports, the alliance’s planes destroyed 5,900 military targets. The operation ended only after Gaddafi’s physical elimination by Libyan rebels last October.

In its report published on March 2 the UN Human Rights Commission presented evidence of the death of at least 50 civilians as a result of NATO’s air raids. The international human rights organization Amnesty International gathered documentary evidence of the death of at least 55 civilians, including 16 women and 14 children, that NATO’s air strikes had led to. Such cases occurred after air raids on Tripoli, Sirt, Marsa-el Brega, Zliten and Majer.

“Implausibly, NATO insists it knows of no “confirmed” civilian casualties during its entire seven-month Libya bombing campaign,” says an editorial in Friday’s New York Times. “Confirmed” means confirmed by NATO, which has shown little interest in investigating credible independent claims of civilian fatalities, including a 27-page memo submitted by The Times last year documenting nine separate attacks where the evidence pointed to unintended victims.”

The 70-nation “Friends of Syria” gathering in Turkey is reconsidering comprehensive support for the armed Syrian opposition after Damascus agreed on Kofi Annan’s internationally backed peace plan.

The second meeting of the states calling themselves the “Friends of Syria” is set to pledge humanitarian and financial aid to the opposition and victims of the conflict.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave an opening address, saying Ankara has no intention of interfering in any other country’s internal policy. However, he claims that the Syrian government continues to repress the legitimate demands of the Syrian people.

A anti-Syrian government demonstration has been staged just outside the venue for the “Friends of Syria” meeting.

Erdogan stated that 20,000 Syrian people were forced to flee to Turkey because of the violence.
Those attending the Istanbul-hosted meeting are primarily concerned with making the Syrian opposition more effective. At the same time, there are concerns that arming the Free Syrian Army could spark sectarian violence in the country.

The timeline for implementing Kofi Annan’s peace plan and how exactly it is going to be carried out also tops the meeting’s agenda.

It is quite possible that the “Friends of Syria” will recognize the Syrian National Council (SNC) as the sole representative of the Syrian people. At the same time, the SNC has a myriad of internal problems to overcome. So far, beyond pledges for humanitarian and financial aid, there is not much that the Friends of Syria meeting can really offer.

Saudi Arabia together with Qatar have advocated arming the Syrian opposition for quite a long time, but the international community fears it will heat up sectarian violence in a country riven with division.

“25 min 28 sec ago – Iraq. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime will not fall and attempts to overthrow it by force will aggravate the crisis in the region, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Sunday.

“It has been one year and the regime did not fall, and it will not fall, and why should it fall?” Maliki told a news conference in Baghdad.

Alan #545
“Regrettably, our Western partners in the UN Security Council have been trying to play down and hush up the affair in every way they can,” Churkin told Itar-Tass.””

“On Friday journalists asked the UN Secretary General’s deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey about Ban Ki-moon’s response to the North Atlantic Alliance’s refusal to cooperate with the international commission for the investigation of human rights abuse in Libya the UN Human Rights Council had created. The deputy spokesman looked confused and then said that it depended entirely on the Human Rights Council how to achieve cooperation with NATO.”
Of course, it would be harsh for NATO to let people investigate who took the decision to let some boats of migrants drift and sink when all their military vessels were in the sector. Just an example of their “humanitarian behaviour”.

Law and order, does this mean to you law of Assad that says Assad must continue to rule Syria? you still do not come with solution, clear enough, for us to understand, vague statement has no value.

The law of Assad is not acceptable to the syrians, I hope it is not acceptable to you.
We are trying to do is to get a law in Syria that is acceptable to all syrians, not the fake one we have now, which means domination of minority representing less than 7 % over majority represent over 80 %

I am sorry you lost family member, can you tell us more about this incident, did this family member die in certain circumstances?

Britain, the US and Turkey have warned Bashar al-Assad that he is running out of time and that the international community is rapidly losing patience with his regime’s failure to end the violence in Syria.
….
The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said the Syrian regime should not be allowed to “manipulate” the plan to win time, indicating that military options might have to be considered if Syria does not co-operate with Annan’s plan and the UN security council fails to unite in opposition to Assad. Russia and China vetoed a UN censure of Assad, fearing the measures could lead to foreign military intervention.

“If the UN security council fails once again to bring about its historic responsibility, there will be no other choice than to support the Syrian people’s right to self-defence,” Erdogan said.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, also expressed scepticism that the Syrian government would observe Annan’s plans, which call for an immediate ceasefire and a Syrian-led negotiation process.

“Nearly a week has gone by, and we have to conclude that the regime is adding to its long list of broken promises,” Clinton said. “The world must judge Assad by what he does, not by what he says. And we cannot sit back and wait any longer.”

Clinton urged unity behind a plan that includes more sanctions, humanitarian aid, support for the opposition and the promise of justice one day for regime figures involved in atrocities. She said the US is providing communications equipment to help opposition members in Syria organise, remain in contact with the outside world and evade regime attacks.

Foreign secretary William Hague said the issue could return to the security council if current efforts to resolve the crisis fail. “There isn’t an unlimited period of time for this, for the Kofi Annan process to work before many of the nations here want us to go back to the UN security council – some of them will call for arming the opposition if there isn’t progress made,” he told BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show.
….
Burhan Ghalioun, leader of the opposition Syrian National Council, called for additional measures, including the strengthening of Syrian rebel forces as well as “security corridors” inside Syria, an apparent reference to the foreign military intervention that the nations meeting in Istanbul have so far been reluctant to support.

“No one should allow this regime to feel at ease or to feel stronger by giving them a longer manoeuvring area,” he said, reflecting fears that Assad would try to use the Annan plan to prolong his rule. “It’s enough that the international community has flirted with the regime in Syria. Something has to change.”

The Syrian government launched a pre-emptive attack on the conference, with a front-page editorial in the official al-Baath newspaper calling it a “regional and international scramble to search for ways to kill more Syrians, sabotage their society and state and move toward the broad objective of weakening Syria.” The regime has consistently dismissed the country’s year-long uprising as a foreign-engineered conspiracy.

549
Military voodoo. Revival of “the African Bin Laden” as a way of the USA to select oil at Chinahttp://www.odnako.org/blogs/show_16535/
translator needed http://www.translate.ru/
On March 09 2012
Evgeny Super
In a popular video hosting of Youtube last week there was a new leader of viewings – the half-hour roller of Kony 2012 which has been let out by the American NPO of Invisible Children Inc. For the first four days of hire the simple roller gained 46 million viewings and more than 1 million «лайков». Extraordinary popularity of the film having very doubtful art advantages, forced us to look narrowly more attentively at a situation that in turn helped to open background of promotion of campaign «against the African terrorist No. 1»…../…./…

Tommorow Annan will talk in the UN, I say we have enough meetings, they are not accomplishing nothing,,Arming FSA with weapons that enable them to defend the syrian people must be a priority, UN must issue an order under 7th chapter to stop military actions,and send observers.short of that,chaos will follow,and more refugee to Turkey, who will find it important for its security to intervene, and I am sure things will get worse.

Barack Obama has not been effective leader,and the syrian issue will be a campaign issue.

The characterization from European and Arab diplomats may be more diplomatic, but no less critical of the SNC’s lack of leadership, organizational skills and ideas.
…
The U.S. is hoping these expats can deliver. They are telling you they can, but their actions and infighting are telling you they can’t,” said the University of Oklahoma’s Joshua Landis, who writes Syria Comment, a daily newsletter on Syrian politics. “The Obama administration fears they will implode or be overtaken by actors within Syria who are better connected to forces on the ground. The Obama administration doesn’t want to be caught going down the same yellow brick trail as the Bush administration did when it backed the Iraqi National Council only to discover that it didn’t have much purchase with Iraqi society.”
…
“The next ruler of Syria is likely to emerge out of the battlefield. The Assad regime will have to be pulled down by force. The Syrian who emerges from the fierce competition underway among opposition leaders within Syria will have developed loyalty, a broad following, leadership, and strategic vision,” said newsletter writer Landis. “The spoils are not going to go to the Harvard grad or someone at USIP. No American political party works that way. They give it to the people that worked for them and the ones that win.”
..
While not abandoning the SNC entirely, senior officials say the Obama administration in recent months has begun to cast a much wider net for Syrians who can run Syria the day after al-Assad falls. The United States could no longer put all of its eggs in the SNC’s basket.

I think that nothing of that will happen. The UN can not request chapter 7 for an UNSC resolution that does exist. If any UNSC resolution will emerge, it will be based on the Annan plan with ‘obligation’ for the opposition to depose their weapons and the obligation of countries to stop delivery of weapons to the opposition. So that will not happen soon, but it may happen after a while.

Turkey will start to have serious problems with the refugees as many would want to settle in Turkey and Turkey refuse to grant them residence. In addition there are many spies within the refugees and this will create increased security issues in the camps.

The PKK will become more active on the northern borders and Turkey will be obliged to accept that Bashar al Assad is here to stay until there are elections.

Turkey is stuck and impotent, the proof is that the above Plan B posted by ZOO totally ignores Turkey.

I just heard it on Aljazeera. This was reiterated by the Turkish foreign minister during his press conference at the conclusion of the FOS meeting in response to a journalist question pointing to the similarity between the suffer g of the Syrian people and the Bosnians.

DAMASCUS, (SANA)_ Syria is committed to ‘positively cooperate’ with the UN Envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, reiterated Dr. Jihad Maqdisi, Foreign and Expatriates Ministry Spokesman, asserting that the basics for Syria in dealing with Mr. Annan’s mission or others lie in preserving the sovereignty of Syria as well as in the non breaching to Syria’s national security and stability, and in the logical and symmetrical implementation- of Annan’s 6-point Plan-.

Interviewed by the Syrian Satellite TV yesterday evening, Maqdisi declared that a protocol is to be signed as to organize the issue of observers to reach to the pacification: ‘Syria is soon to receive a negotiating technical team –for talks- between Syria and the United Nations regarding mechanisms of implementation,’ said Dr. Maqdisi.

“Syria calls on the world to help it instead of exerting pressures on it. Syria does welcome the objective of any initiative if its aim were to assist Syria in achieving the reforms and stabilizing the country,’ added the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry Spokesman.

Maqdisi asserted that the battle as to down the State in Syria failed and that the battle for stabilization and upgrading the renewed Syria started on the way of development and reforms. Dr. Maqdisi urged Mr. Annan to tour the countries which finance, host and encourage the opposition.

The presence of the illegitimate armed elements within the opposition components is clearly documented internationally and legally and is acknowledged by the latest report issued by Arab Observers Mission, outlined Maqdisi.

“The leader of the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) Burhan Ghalioun called on the international community to recognize the group as the sole representative of the Syrian people.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said ahead of the meeting in Istanbul that France and Turkey would like to recognize the SNC as “the legitimate representative body of the Syrian people”, but not every member of the Friends of Syria group supports that move.­”

The SNC has a lot of work to do before it can become the “sole rep” of the Syrian people, first they have to prove they really represent the whole opposition, or most of it, then they have to show that the opposition they represent speaks for the majority of Syrians. The SNC is at best a sizable, but shrinking, opposition force, not similar to the PLO for example, any claims beyond this is hot air.

FOS after all may be a waste of time and money and I am still waiting to see how and when they will help Syrians in need, people can not eat articles or buy gasoline with slogans. One disgusting position was the call by Arabi to deal with Syria under UNSC chapter 7, translation: bomb Syria to the ground. This is the AL chief, enjoy the lie:
أمة عربية واحده

Turkey has been comparing Syria to Rwanda, Bosnia, Libya etc.. and Bashar to Hitler, Qaddafi etc…

I think that is all the enraged and impotent Turkey has been able to do after having been rebuffed by Bashar on their ‘friendly advices and deadlines’.

I think the USA and the EU are subtly making Erdogan pay for his arrogance and rejection toward Israel by ignoring him and leaving him alone to deal with the mess he has created in his relationship with Syria.

Look at the “Plan B” article posted by ZOO in CNN., Turkey is not even mentionned once.
Most Arab countries are distancing themselves from Turkey after it became clear Erdogan’s AKP wants to spread the Moslem Brotherhood agenda in the Arab Spring and pose as a “model” for the Arab Spring.

Israel is certainly rejoicing of that… and Turkey more and more politically isolated.

I heard it on Aljazeera during the press conference. We will have to wait for a physical link.

In any case, the SNC is alive and kicking. Yes, it has committed some mistakes but that was part of the “growing pains” and political maturity, not unexpected given 40 years of a dictatorship that killed any political life in the Syrian society.

“not unexpected given 40 years of a dictatorship that killed any political life in the Syrian society.”

Sorry, this is a very commonly used and poor excuse for a bunch of inept, egomaniac, arrogant and corrupted people.

What about the An Nahda of Tunisia? and the TNC of Libya formed in 2 weeks? Or the united opposition in Bahrain? Were they not under a similar ‘dictatorship’?

If you prefer to hang on the SNC as a bunch of students learning their job, let us give them 2 or 3 years to get their BA with the motherly help of Turkey, Qatar and KSA. In the meantime let’s talk realpolitik.

“It seems that the ottoman sultan is changing his mind about the Syrian election at the same day of the enemies of Syria, strange!

Free elections in Syria can end violence, says PM Erdoğan””

Jad

Erdogan is stuck, he is loosing politically with its neighbours.

His row with Israel has isolated him from the USA, his row about Cyprus has isolated him from the EU, his declarations in Egypt and Tunisia has isolated him from the Arab Spring countries, his row with Syria has isolated him from Iran. He has not been able to attract Hamas in Turkey. He is overflown with refugees. He has increased problems with the Kurds and his baby the SNC is seriously sick and the FOS in Istanbul smells bad.

What else can he do except calling for elections in Syria.

The big surprise will be if Bashar is re-elected, I think he will jump in the Bosphorus with Davutoglu.

I hate to admit it but the Syrians are similar to Lebanese.. In that we are all leaders or wanna be.. You can hardly find any people to lead.

The concept of subordination is very difficult for us to grasp. May be a psychological reaction to a long-standing oppression.

I myself had very difficult time when I first joined my firm with “subordination”. I was always the rebel and did not want to be bossed around. I learned the democratic way to “rebel” slowly but grudgingly .. And was not at ease until… I became part of the leadership..

577.
“damn, that was frustrating to read. where are the wealthy expat syrians willing to fund operations? surely snc could lobby such people.”
WHO FROM THESE PAYERS CAN GUARANTEE ME WHOM WILL BE KILLED FROM SYRIANS BY THAT MONEY?

Turkey needs to get more oil from KSA after the US asked Erdogan to abide by sanctions on Iran, but what is going to happen to the $ 18 billion annual trade with Iran and the 200,000 barrel of oil Turkey gets every day from Tehran?

Turkey does not want conflicts and wars in the region,regardless of what you hear and read, what the Turks want is more trade, more influence in the region and a tamed Kurdish nation. Do not compare Turkey to the GCC, there is a hundred year difference between the two entities politically, culturally and economically. The GCC has money but hardly anything else, with the notable exception of the UAE thriving trade position. If there is a need for an Arab Spring, the GCC should top the list. Call me when Saudi women are allowed to drive or vote, the only thing those Sheikhs can do is corrupt more Syrian and Lebanese politicians and push their “ulamaa” to vomit outrageous Fatwas that certify second class status of women and criminalize any challenge to ruling families.

Do you honestly believe that the regime is willing and able to allow clean elections?

I hope I am not spelling any secretes here,but the Syrian elite and the GCC never trusted the public ability to practice democracy, they in one way or the other believe in the virtue of political kingdoms regardless of what name they use for their countries.

Without continuous pressure from the public and diplomatic and personal sanctions from the world community, the ruling elite will not allow clean and fair elections. Have you asked yourself why the GCC prefers chaos over a political peaceful transition?

Chaos will give them the opportunity to install a puppet regime in Syria and tell their own people: look what happens when you revolt against ” walie alamr”.

In that sense,the corrupt leaders of Syria are on the same page with the GCC, they both fear democracy and do not want people to mature politically.

Why was Jihad Maqdisi, who was a diplomat in the U.S. with “diplomatic immunity,” recalled from Washington D.C. more than 10 years ago?
Wasn’t it because he and his wife were caught shop-lifting from a Washington area shopping mall?

I guess being a shop-lifter and a thief do not disqualify a person from serving in the Syrian gov’t. Heck! Asma is stealing and embezzling Syrian people’s money everyday in order to buy Harry Potter books and expensive Parisian decorations!!!!!!!!

“The Syrian regime will not fall by force. Why should it fall? (While) our job as Arab and Muslims to go to put out and surround the crisis of Syria,” Maliki told a news conference in Baghdad.

“We (Iraq) want a peaceful political solution for the (Syrian) crisis, therefore, we reject any arming for the (Syrian) opposition to overthrow the regime by force that may leave greater (negative) impact in the region,” Maliki said.

Dear Mr. Mjabali
I’m very sorry for your lost, my deepest sympathy to you and to their families.

I think that we are wasting our times on the Nusayri/Majoos haters, I tried many times. I think their hate blinded them from seeing their true selves forever.

As for the provocative yanki Omen who keeps ‘calling’, ‘rejoicing’ and ‘hoping’ for Damascus and Syria to be burned, I just want to remind him that more than 4000 of his own soldiers came back from Iraq in boxes after being responsible for hundreds of thousands of lost Iraqi souls with millions of refugees and an ongoing civil war.
Also in one day in 2001 more than 2500 of his own fellow citizens were lost in one terrorist hit, so if he doesn’t see why we are outrageous about his continuous message of death and destruction he defiantly deserve to be called the name I give him until he stops this pathetic provocative writing against Syria.

I’ll keep calling you ‘Jackass’ until you realize that your provocative messages in wishing Syria ill are very disgusting.

It is very foolhardy and provocative for the regime to keep school teachers from Tartous to a hardcore Sunni Arab Bedouin province like Deirezzor, especially given the current political climate. Why do you need someone from Tartous to teach in a school 500 miles away ?

Mjabali, Ibn Taymiyya is a controversial figure within Sunnism and the ottomans persecuted those who held his views, it didn’t change the fact that with or without Ibn taymiyya, the nusayris will still be considered as heretical by the common agreement of the Muslims .

In the same way, the nusayris consider us as infidels.

And there is no doubt that the genocide that took place in Syria in these decades committed by the nusayris are driven by this minority syndrome built on hatred.

Now I would agree with your views if the Muslims repeat the same massive massacres as those committed by the assadists against the Syrian or arab civilians and take revenge against qardaha by killing for exemple 30 000 alawites in few days, even the most extremist bin ladanist scum will not be able to do that.

there is something weird going on. i tried to pull up a cnn segment from jan 24th where anderson cooper interviewed former cia agent bob baer. mr. baer said he talks to the syrian faction of muslim brotherhood all the time. they questioned him why doesn’t the u.s. do more to help. mr. baer asked in return what the brothers planned to do with bashar assad? the syrian brothers said they would kill him.

but that’s not what the transcript says. (the original video i tried to pull has been “expired” when other videos in a similar timeline are still active. and i couldn’t find another replicate of the video – when one can usually can – on google or youtube.)

BAER: Absolutely. Well, you know, I talk to the Muslim brotherhood a lot. And I ask — and they ask me. They say why doesn’t the United States do something? And I said, they’re worried about the sectarian problems. And I said for instance, what are you going to do about the — and the Syrian brothers say we’re going to kill them. What do you think? And I said, well, what do you expect?

see the dash in the paragraph? baer said “assad” in the live segment but in the transcript, bashar’s name got blanked out. i know baer said assad because i was skeptical of the claim at the time and tweeted about it.

a few days later, in a separate abc write up, this baer account of promised brotherhood reprisal against a singular figure turns into a plural:

Baer says the situation in Syria can be illustrated by a conversation he had recently with a Syrian Muslim brother who wanted to know why the U.S. won’t do more to help. Baer told him it was because the U.S. fears a civil war in Syria.

“And he said, ‘Well you know just get rid of the regime and everything will be OK,’ and I said, ‘What are you going to do with the minority ruling sect,’ and he said, half jokingly, ‘We’re going to kill them,'” Baer said.